Church: Boring & Irrelevant
I’ve been going to church ever since I can remember…I’ve survived Sunday school, enjoyed youth groups and sat through countless church services full of standing up, sitting down and singing songs written long before anyone in church can remember….to add to this I’ve heard plenty of drivel from the newer song writers and if I’m being completely honest I often find church boring and irrelevant.
As a youth worker for a Christian charity one of my concerns is not that the young people we have going to youth groups now don’t go to church but that they will never go to church (when I say church I don’t mean a Sunday service but a gathering of Christians).
This means that the youth groups I meet with whether it’s our 11-14′s group, Rock Solid group or Christian Union in school are all as much church as a Sunday morning service however what’s next? Maybe they’ll find trendy university churches but sooner or later they probably have to come back to the reality that generally church isn’t exciting.
I had a conversation with someone recently about someone who became a Christian and went to church for a while but always remarked ‘Why does it have to be so boring?’. This wasn’t a young person either and that person eventually gave up.
And along came the emerging Church…
Emerging church is a title is basically thrown at any ‘church’ gathering that isn’t a hymn sandwich.It might refer to cafe church, some kind of family fun day or a whole variety of ‘very slightly off the wall’ church events and whilst I love the idea of proper coffee and a informal church these things often miss the point.
These emerging churches can often become nothing more than a social gathering with the addition of something so watered down it’s barely a Christian message.
The Problem is this…
If church becomes something so boring that people switch off then we lose the ‘life in all its fullness’ that Christ promises. The freedom we’re meant to receive in Christ becomes nothing more than a chore of sitting through an hour of dullness a week.
If church becomes something so irrelevant that the event is nothing more than a social event with a watered-down, half-arsed attempt at proclaiming the greatness of Jesus then it is equally as pointless as the church that is boring.
The Gospel
The message that Jesus brought to people was neither boring or irrelevant. It was a life changing encounter. It caused people to do crazy things like selling their possessions and looking after the poor. It caused people to have a conviction so strong about having Jesus in their lives that they were willing to die for the cause.
A Passionless Church
On Sunday Jo and myself visited Emmanuel Church in Durham for no other reason than googling a church to visit whilst there and the format of the church was pretty similar to most (other than the coffee before the service which gave us a chance to feel welcomed in) however the difference was the passion oozing from the people.
The people at Emmanuel Church genuinely cared about Christ and you could see it in their actions and hear it in their voices.
The problem is that the majority of our churches lack passion.
The word passion comes from the Greek word Pathos and translated means something worth dying for.
Does church present us with a Jesus worth dying for? Does church present us with a Christian life that causes us to be passionate people…people who are so convicted by the gospel message and so filled with the Holy Spiirt that they simply cannot even talk about Jesus without it being obvious that this is something they really care about?
The fact is our churches need passion.
Yes some people express themselves differently but sooner or later with people you can find the buttons to push…for some people I know that button is the word ‘Fairtrade’, for others it’s the mention of homophobia and for some it might even be how dangerous the roads are with the ice at the moment.
Everyone has a button that when you push it they burst into life…passionately telling you about something they’re angered about, or excited about or something that they care so much about they simply can’t stay monotone.
How many people in our churches are like that with Jesus?
How many of our churches repeat liturgy as if their life depends on it?
How many people are so passionate about the gospel that they will do anything to spread it?
I’m not talking about people waving their arms in worship (although it does say passion), I’m not talking about speaking in tongues (although it’s God bubbling up from our very souls), I’m not even talking about people shouting or saying ‘yes Lord’ during prayers (although both say passion)…I’m talking about people being excited!
People being passionate.
And so yes…church is boring and irrelevant (a lot of the time) but it doesn’t have to be turned completely upside down to be appealing to people I think often it’s as simple as people wanting what we’ve got. People looking for something to be passionate about. People finding that passion in Jesus.
Emerging church is fantastic if it’s passionate as is an average Sunday morning service. If church is boring then we’ve really missed the point.
Our word passion comes from the Greek ‘Pathos’ which means ‘Something worth dying for’
This morning just before breakfast there was a knock on the door. I opened it and standing on our doorstep/the street was a nicely dressed couple. The lady, who was clutching a red leather clad bible greeted me by saying ‘We’ve just come to share the good news of the gospel’.
As I previously mentioned this year Jo and myself headed to Greenbelt after the encouragement of a good friend and the temptation from Greenbelt of a free youth worker ticket paid off so on Friday we packed up the car and headed down to Cheltenham Racecourse.
The main thing that attracted me to Greenbelt was ‘The King Blues’ and ‘Luke Leighfield’ who would play gigs during the weekend…however throughout the weekend I caught some other bands too including an acoustic and mainstage set from Jars of Clay.
