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.”)
