"God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen,
the things that are not,
so that He may nullify the things that are,
so that no man may boast before God.
But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus,
who became to us wisdom from God,
and righteousness and sanctification,
and redemption, so that, just as it is written, 'LET HIM WHO BOASTS,
BOAST IN THE LORD.'"
- St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 1:27-31
Although I went to two different church buildings at two different times this past weekend, I think I only attended one Church!
CHRISTIAN - DESPITE THE CHURCH
I’ve always believed that when I was first introduced to Christianity – I was drawn to it DESPITE the church. Indeed, my initial decision to become a Christian was made BEFORE I began seriously to look for a potential church where I’d want to attend regularly. Such was the perceived state of the Church in my mind.
THE FIRST CHURCH I LOVED
Willow Creek Community Church was already a large church when I discovered it and claimed it as my first Church home back in 1984. Now it’s a Mega-Church of the first order – I’d argue that it is the prototype of the “mega church” movement.
What I’ve always loved about Willow Creek is its enthusiasm for attracting new believers; particularly focusing on those that are identified as the “Unchurched.” These are those individuals in a community, who either abandoned church attendance at an early age – because of its apparent irrelevance to the issues that they struggled with daily. Or, as is more the case today, second-generation offspring of those who abandoned church and have little or no experience with church in their lives, except as a once or twice-a-year holiday ritual, or an occasional wedding or funeral.
Willow’s strategy was based on a solid “Acts of the Apostles” model.
· Share the gospel message
· Baptize the new believers and through solid teaching, turn them into fully devoted disciples, or followers, of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we moved from Chicago to Cincinnati, we were unable to find a church like Willow Creek. We found Churches that tried to be Willow Creek – they did a good job of attracting the unchurched, but unfortunately, they seemed to fall short on the second part. The result being a repetitious weekend service that basically explained the gospel message over and over again with very little experience of worship or opportunity to grow in understanding. Rather than building up the Church by bringing people into it – they rather “dumbed down” the Church and tried to turn it into entertainment – often making the experience like a bad episode of “American Idol.”
Although these Churches grew in attendance – they did not appear to grow into maturity as a life-transforming community.
Unfortunatly, after attending many and various Mega-Churches throughout the country, this opinion appears to have been confirmed. It was this experience of being "spiritually undernourished" that ultimately led me away from Evangelical Christianity to Buddhism, which through its traditions and liturgy led me back to Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
GOD IS ALWAYS DOING A NEW THING….
However, in my life I have seen that God is always present in that which is done in His name – even if you have to look hard sometimes!!!
During the early days of the Church – recounted in the book of “Acts of the Apostles”- there were a lot of situations where the Apostles were surprised by the working of the Holy Spirit within them. As I read through the book – you can actually see the Apostles maturing in their understanding as they went about forming the historical Church.
What I see today in the 21st Century is an echo of the early days of the Church. Despite the two thousand year history of Christianity, there is a need for the message of the presence of the Kingdom of God to be restated and restored to its original form.
The original Church still exists – and the Holy Spirit has never stopped working to draw people to God.
“Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself."And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!" So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
- Acts of the Apostles, Chap 2: 37-47
This past Saturday evening, my wife, my daughter, and I attended a service at Crossroads Community Church and witnessed the Holy Spirit interacting with those who were called somewhat spontaneously to be baptized. Many people, in their street clothes, came down to be immersed in the baptismal pool on the stage – no deep explanation of its meaning was needed – the “mystery” of Baptism and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit was left undefined – yet people stepped out of their comfort zones and before hundreds of people declared their desire and intent to become members of the body of Christ. It was a very moving experience.
Crossroads Community Church describes itself as: “an interdenominational church started to help show the relevance of God in real life. The objective of the church is to create an informal environment for learning about God through up-to-date music, practical real-life messages and the development of authentic relationships.”
Crossroads appears to be a type of 21st Century “virtual in-gathering” where “all who are far off” can come to hear about God and begin the transition from the Kingdom of this world to the Kingdom of Heaven, like those of Jerusalem 2000 years ago.
Crossroads follows the Willow Creek model very well – better than most other Megachurches – however, like others, they still struggle with the challenge of turning “seekers” into “fully devoted followers.” They have a series of periodic midweek services called“The Next Level” that attempt to bridge this gap. I pray that they will be successful in this endeavor.
THE CHURCH, BUILDING TWO, VERSION ONE - BEFORE THERE WAS A CROSSROAD
The second church building that I attended is a modern day representation of the unchanged ancient Church that has existed since the first few centuries of Christianity.
The Church that the Acts of the Apostles established still exists – as the Ancient Eastern Orthodox Church. It is still growing, albeit very slowly, and it still practices the traditions that were handed down from the Apostles. Its services were held in the second Church building that I attended this past weekend. Where I experienced the worship described in the Bible – the worship that is joined with the Angels and the Saints. This is the “solid food” that the Apostle Paul speaks of desiring for the believers in Corinth (1 Corinthians 3:2)
However, this “second,” but original Church has no real strategy for attracting the seekers of the 21st Century. It could be said that it almost has the opposite problem to that of the “seeker-friendly” Megachurches, which attract, but do not build into their members.
I don’t presume to have a solution for this dilemma – one short answer (from the “Seeker Friendly” church point of view) might be to skillfully introduce the spirituality of the Orthodox Church into a "Next Level" service as a kind of “graduate level program” of discipleship. While another approach (from the Orthodox point of view) might be for the Eastern Orthodox Church to offer another type of service or outreach that emphasizes the teaching about God. A service designed for Catechumens, or seekers – those new to Christianity.
CHERISH THE BRIDE
I love the Church even when “she”has so often behaved rather badly – because I know that she is the Bride of Christ and that He loved her enough to die for her and continues to love her. Our challenge in the 21st Century is to:
- adorn her without demeaning her,
- to preserve her without "freezing" her in time,
- and to cherish her without trying to selfishly "own" her.
2 comments:
The original Church still exists indeed....and the gates of hell will not prevail, in spite of ourselves.
Perhaps Saturday night vespers could be advertised as such (or vigil, if you're Slavonic rite). Vespers is fairly short, and a good introduction to what Orthodoxy looks like; the full vigil is 2 or 3 hours long, but it includes a bunch of teaching in song form in matins. And of course, it should be made clear that it's ok to show up late or leave early.
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