Why Bother?
No doubt I’m an outspoken and brusque, sometimes-grumpy old man. Fine. I can live with that (exaggerated though it is).
In my defense, “brusque” don’t harm nobody when a ship is sinking.
And do I swear, the Christian ship is sinking. Like the Titatnic: big, bloated, supposedly unsinkable. That’s the American church. And it’s filled with an elitist clientele wining and dining on the upper decks while Leonardo De Caprio’s class (the brusque ones) live far below-deck with the rats.
Keith & Darlene - life among the lower classes isn't so bad.
There are advantages to a below-deck view: you can see the big gash along the ship’s bottom, and water is gushing in by the ton. (But nobody in the upper decks will listen…)
It’s really not a melodramatic point, because I can’t find anyone truly alarmed about the growing irrelevance of the Gospel. Yes, many Christians are aware of the steep decline in Christian strength, effectiveness, attraction, impact, adherents, attendance, or whatever measures it. But nobody is alarmed!
In the movie Titanic, moments before certain death, the rich and powerful still wined and dined in the ballrooms, although it was a sad party…
Who is alarmed?
When someone is alarmed–like when a ship is sinking–they take action. Serious action. (Maybe they sound brusque?)
So now there’s a plethora of Christian books hitting the market that attempt to raise alarm, but they only whisper. One reviewer summarized it well:
There is no shortage of books promoting a different model of church. Think of titles like Missional Church, Purpose-Driven Church, Organic Church, Total Church, Deliberate Church, Vintage Church, Equipping Church, Not Your Grandfather’s Church, We’re Cooler Than Our Parents Church, or, a recent favorite, We Want to Be Faithful to the Gospel AND Have the World Love Us Church. — Johnathon Leerman, reviewing Vibrant Church.
Then Leerman summarizes their impact:
They don’t try to revolutionize church as we know it. They don’t talk about earthquake-sized epistemological shifts in our cultural tectonic plates, and then call for a whole new theology of ecclesial life and mission. No, they simply want to strengthen and to equip the church. That’s it.
The American Church in a few years.
There you go. The Titanic is sinking, and the million-dollar answer is: “strengthen and equip it!”
Why bother?
Ditch “Church”
Here’s where I’m surely outspoken, and perhaps crazy. (Or crazy like a fox!)
I say, “Jump for your lives!” Put another way, “Women and children first! There aren’t enough lifeboats!” Put another way, “Get off the Titanic! It’s sinking, foo!”
Church is the most glaring example of a word which never belonged in the Christian vocabulary. The Bible uses the Greek word Ecclesia, not Church. Ecclesia was a common term meaning “an assembly”, like a High School assembly or a town meeting.
Wanna come to my Church?
Why stigmatize Christian gatherings with “Church” when the Bible uses “Assembly” to label our gatherings ? By choosing Ecclesia, doesn’t God mean for His people to gather in a non-threatening, common assembly (like an “ecclesia” used to mean)?
More important, “Church” carries the stench of cultural and historical baggage which we simply can’t afford to ally ourselves with anymore. (Never should’ve allied ourselves with Church history anyway–it’s the history of Europe, not Christianity!) This baggage effectively blocks large numbers of people from attending any Christian gathering.
“Hey, do you want to come to my church?” What answer would you get? “Hell NO!”
A Different Invitation
Wanna hang out?
“Hey, do you wanna come to our Hangout?” Now there’s an interesting proposal. (Not sure what it means, but it is interesting!)
Truthfully, the “hangout” invitation is far more compatible with God’s invitation we read in the Bible. His intention was to name us the Ecclesia — “a gathering”, or “hangout.”
What is the advantage of the C-word anyway? Does anyone really know? Beyond stigmatizing Christian gatherings, does it do anyone any good?
But this proposal is far too radical, too revolutionary, and definitely too cool for the established Church to consider, I think. If we dropped the C-word from our vocabulary and used Hangout instead, isn’t that surefire proof we’re a cult after all? Some would agree.
These are the titles we should be seeing in Christian bookstores: Missional Hangout, Purpose-Driven Hangout, Organic Hangout, Total Hangout, Deliberate Hangout, Vintage Hangout, Equipping Hangout, Not Your Grandfather’s Hangout… (I would drop “We’re Cooler Than Our Parents Hangout, or, “We Want to Be Faithful to the Gospel AND Have the World Love Us Hangout.”)
[...] are either misunderstood or downright inaccurate, and there are compelling reasons for it. See Why Bother? A blog addressing the [...]
I think you mistakenly refer to the Gospel as “growing in irrelevance.”
If something is irrelevant, it is not the Gospel. If it is, was, or had the potential to be irrelevant, we wouldn’t have any business offering it to people as a solution to the problem of sin.
I could be wrong, but I think you meant to type, “…the growing irrelevance of the church.”
If the church is declining in strength, effectiveness, etc. it doesn’t have anything to do with the Gospel. It has everything to do with Christians, and it goes without saying that Christians are not the same as the Gospel.
Christians are not truth- Jesus is.
Christians are not the way- Jesus is.
Christians are not life- Jesus is.
The Christian way is not necessarily Jesus’ way. In this article you certainly articulate that.
The more I learn about this kind of issue, the more it seems to become a wrestling match with cultural icons and semantic word-play.
The issue seems to be “The word church has a lot of negative things that go along with it, so we need a new descriptive word that doesn’t turn people off.”
In the same spirit of half-humor, half-caution, I offer this list of alternative alternatives even to the word “hangout:”
Thingie
Whatchamacalit
Groupy-thing
Get-together
Trutherapy
Collective
Hive
Like-a-Party-thing, Not-really-but-kinda
Stomping Ground
Resort
A word of caution though: Guard yourself against bitterness. A person can be bitter at an institution or an idea just as easily as they can be bitter at their fellow man.
I do that all the time, so I know how easy it is to do. I think “I don’t even know why I bother, no one cares anyway,” and proceed to have unproductive bouts of cynicism which only alienate me with feelings of superiority- “I get it and no one else does. They’re just too dumb. Poor little them.”
Man Keith, you are just so wrong on this one. JK.
Nice article, although I would agree with Jeremiah and would not call it a hangout, but rather a thingie.
When I was invited to my grandma’s church as a child, I was highly turned off. As a fun-loving kid I felt that going to “Church” was the last thing I would want to do. So dropping that completely was the resolution. Later in life I would come across a fun-loving bible study AKA hangout AKA thingie. This bible study matched my fun-loving attitude, wasn’t boring, and wasn’t full of boring old people who hate teens.
It was great, appealing and is still relevant and appealing to other teens today. Of course the church has really stained the view of bible studies so that is the reason we get the reply “HELL NO”, when inviting others. But once we get a “Alright, I’ll check it out”, they like the thingie we’re into, and they agree its nothing like there grandmas church, its not boring.
This all aids in the mission we have from Christ, to go forth and make disciples of all nations, trying to Oxyclean the stain the church has made of the years out of bible studies and GOD.
God is good, and is very not boring, he designed us has emotional, fun-loving people. Our hangouts promote real, loving relationships, opposed to superficial, “i have to be here” stone-faced boring, non-loving relationships, which are formed in the CHURCH today.
Thank God for Xenos, or else I’d be going to hell and would go on living only knowing (or at least thinking I knew) the boring side of God. (This really does not exist)
“Groupy-thing” …!? Holy jamolie, Jeremiah! But “Stomping Ground” isn’t too bad.
You’re right Jeremiah, I used the wrong word: the Gospel isn’t growing more irrelevant, but it is growing more obscure.
Oxyclean? There’s a very unique perspective, B!
The truth is, I think Xenos could become (and we have been) even more boring than “Church” — if we don’t watch it. There’s nothing worse than a Xenoid who’s a rebel against Church, but doesn’t really get into The Revolution. Then what do we have? A “Rebel Without a Cause,” they call it!
I rebuke you. You shouldn’t be dissing other churches.
Mr. Driscoll (did I spell that right?) — you’re right, I shouldn’t be dissing anyone, but sometimes it’s just too irresistible. As one song put it, “Every single one of us–a devil inside!” And I’m sure you’d agree with me on that point!
Thanks for taking the time to diss my dissing!