Friday, October 30, 2009

We Are Killing the Church

Well over 100 years ago, in what I believe was an amazingly egocentric move, Frederick Nietzsche pronounce God dead. He, of course, didn't mean that God had really died, but that God had never existed. It is a cheap shot but I will take it by announcing that 100 + years later God is much more alive than Nietzsche.

Since the days of the announcement of the death of God, many people have been writing about and arguing about and worrying about the life and health of the church in North America. For the past several decades those within the church and those who observe the church from a safe distance have opined that the church is on its way out. Many people have joyfully pronounced the church dead. I don't think the church is dead. Well, I don't think it is all dead, but it is just mostly dead. (My thanks and apologies to the writers of The Princess Bride.)

The church, as we have known it for several centuries, is just about dead. That is not an opinion. It is not an accusation. It is not a complaint. It is not a call to arms. It is just an observation. If the statistics being reported to us are accurate, it is an astute observation of the obvious. The church in North America is dying and it is dying rapidly.

I feel bad about that… kinda. First let me address the "I feel bad" part of that statement. I feel bad because I love the church. In general, the church has been good to me and for me. Some of the best (and some of the worst) experiences I have had have been in the church. I believe in the church. I think Jesus founded the church as His vehicle to impact this sadly sick world with His message of love, health and forgiveness. The church, at its best, is an awesome, beautiful thing. But all too often, the church is not at its best. And at its less than best the church just plain sucks.

I feel bad that the church is dying because it is me and people like me who have just about finished it off. The church has survived some amazingly toxic assaults, both ecclesiastical and secular, over the centuries. But nothing can measure up to the toxicity of our North American culture. We are rich. We are self satisfied. We are consumers. We believe ourselves to be entitled to the good life and happiness. We are short sighted. We are absolutely sure we are the smartest people who ever happened. We are astoundingly self-centered. And we have designed a god in our own image and ensconced this god in the Christian church of North America. Thus we have a church that allows us to worship ourselves (Or a god who is just like us), to do as we please, to behave just like people who don't claim to know God and the results is that we tend to attract no one who is looking for depth and meaning to life.

On the progressive side of the church this plays out into a church that doesn't give a crap if our behavior conforms to Biblical standards of morality or not. Our morality is founded on what is popular and accepted at the moment. We take a poll and proclaim "Survey says it is okay to… "and think that is an authoritative answer. Really, how could 20,000,000 people be wrong? The joy of the progressive Christianity is that we are all welcome to do as we please and we will think of a way of bending Biblical concepts to fit our behavior. Who are we to judge other people's behavior? Unless they are doing something really bad; like using the wrong kind of light bulbs. Being Green is our moral imperative. Believing whatever we please makes us at ease. Open minded is what it is all about. The only unpardonable sin is not being open-minded. BTW, open-minded really means agreeing with me. God is not a god of politics, but if he/she/it were, he/she/it would be a liberal democrat.

On the conservative side of the church, being Christian and being a patriotic American is one and the same thing. You can't be one without being the other. God IS a god of politics and He IS a Republican. The evangelical strain of the North American church has managed to thoroughly and completely mix being a consumer and being a Christian. We are consumer Christians. The church exists to meet my needs. God is a god that is mainly interested in my comfort and prosperity. The Prosperity Gospel flourishes and is preached in many, sometimes subtle, ways. God serves us instead of the other way around. And the idea of serving others is way down the list of things to do.

Woe to us modern day Pharisees. We have chopped, mulched, blended, watered down, mixed up, pasteurized and homogenized Christianity to fit our tastes, our preconceptions, our lifestyles, our desires, to fit into our limited understandings and misconceptions. In our rush to be socially accepted and popular we have lost sight of the idea that perhaps that we would do well to be acceptable to God. And now all we have to offer the world is a man made culture driven religion and religious institution that fails to call us to something and some One who is wiser, deeper, holier and greater than we. We have managed to take a faith movement that literally "turned the world upside down" and made it into a religion that is no more meaningful than a really nice club.

I fully believe that Jesus loves us. I truly believe that Jesus formed the church and loves the church. And I fully believe that we, the institutional church of North America, make Jesus want to puke. We are so full of crap and have insisted on making his church be like us that it is no wonder that few are interested in being a part of that church. That church is dying and, frankly, I could not care less. Good riddance. Though it bears very little resemblance to the one he called into being, we are killing the church of Jesus Christ. And I feel bad about that. Kinda.

Copyright © 2009, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved


 

3 comments:

Pastor Rick said...

Bill: You are right this time, on all counts as far as I can tell. This is an unpopular message but it's one a few of us are coming to grips with. There are those of us who wonder if we can rightly even call what exists today, "the church" it is so far removed from the non-institution Jesus founded. I am hopeful that even if the institution is demolished until nothing is left but the Cornerstone Himself, God will see fit to rebuild His church with those who are willing to be "living stones" and not stumbling blocks!

joel said...

if God isn't a Republican then he must be a Democrat. Its a two party system! I shutter to think.

Very wonderfully put, all of it. Truly prophetic.

I do have hope for my generation, that we can rise up and be the Christians God calls us to be. To make him our Lord (not make Christ serve us) and to realize that the Lordship of Christ is even bigger than America.

There are a few out there that resist the traps you mention, we need to continue to call them out.

Jeff Gill said...

Bill, i think you'll want to read Hank Stuever's "Tinsel," which came out last week -- a look at how Christmas is celebrated in America, from the inside of suburban homes and families, almost all of whom would claim to be evangelical Christians.

Kinda makes your point, except the "not quite dead yet" part (you quote "Princess Bride," i quote "Monty Python").