Had another good conversation with Matt yesterday at lunch. We got to talking about the purpose of church and what church should look like, or maybe more accurately how the family of God should act. Well, guess that’s wrong too, we shouldn’t “act” like anything, that’s part of the problem anyway.
He mentioned that maybe the purpose of the church service isn’t for the lost, but more accurately, just for Christians. A time for us to raise each other up, recharge, refocus and recommit to doing the work of winning the lost once we leave the service.
Then we started speaking about the analogy of the family meal. Everyone sits down together and relates to one another and to the activities of the day. We’re involved in this family, there’s commitment, belonging and roles for each member.
Now, sometimes we get all cleaned up, spend all day in the kitchen preparing food, clean the house, get out our best silver and china, the kids are on their best behaviour and everyone is perfectly polite and hospitable to each other. We invite some friends over and have a wonderful time. Then we think, that was so much fun, we should do it more often, then we decide to hire a professional cook, maybe some servers to take care of thing, we get someone else to come and clean the house and make it a big event. We invite more people over and we begin to think this is the way it’s always done and the way it should be done all the time. BUT, we’ve lost the atmosphere of the family meal. We’re not being “real” with each other, and the friends that we invite over may think this is the way we eat and behave every meal. But we all know it’s not even close.
Now imagine this “meal” is a church service. Professionals are all hired to do the job so we don’t have to spend the time doing it ourselves or get our own hands dirty. The “friends” we invite over are the unchurched, unsaved that we want to bring into the church and “save”.
In this metaphor, I think two bad things happen:
1.) Our friends think as Christians our worlds are perfect, we eat like kings & queens off the finest placeware, are kids are angels and always obey, and we never ever yell at them or each other. Again, we know it’s all a big facade, and we’re making these people think this is what it means to be “Christian”. We’re perfect and everything’s rosey. Then when they see us in one of our normal “meals”, kids pouting and screaming, mom & dad not even looking at each other, as we sit around and eat nuked hotdogs and baked beans off of paper plates, we’re labeled hypocrites. Is it any wonder?
2.) Maybe our friends make it to a couple of our meals and see this perfect little charade. Yet, they know they can’t get their kids to behave, they don’t feel like going anywhere with each other as a couple and are afraid their dirty, life-worn belongings will make a mess in this perfect family’s life. So, future invitations are refused, excuses are given and they go back to their own homes thinking they’re the only ones just existing and nothing else.
Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s always a place for special events and breaks from the ordinary and mundane. However, let’s not get caught up and pretend that it’s the way it always is and maybe even should be. But maybe it would be more worthwhile to invite those people we tread this world with into our homes and lives and let them see the real us. The ones that have problems, the ones that struggle just like they do, and have figured out there’s something or, more accurately, someONE that makes it bearable and gives us the strength to keep going.
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