Many people attend church out of a sense of obligation. Others go because it’s meaningful to them. But whatever is going on with people in attending church, I think most churches would agree that they don’t want to make churchgoing harder on people unnecessarily. Yet what happens when a church does things in a way that actually alienate people who come there, even if they otherwise would really like to be there? Based on a blog posting I read from Mike Kenney (a sports journalist and listener of the show), I thought we’d talk about some of these obstacles our church’s culture doesn’t even realize we’ve put in people’s way.Links:
On Avoiding Physical Contact... by Mike Kenny
The case of Chinese Christianity (PDF) by Archie C.C. Lee
1 comment:
The thing that honestly makes me most uncomfortable in church is when other people place their expectations on me. I go to a very charismatic church where we often shout, jump, dance, and even stand during the entire sermon. It is not that I am opposed to these actions, but I'm not always in a place where I can do that.
I think that people experience God very differently. Just because I am not jumping up and down does not mean that I am not worshipping God. We stress true worship at my church, meaning that we bring an offering to God and don't worry what other people think of how we are worshipping. But my question is does this work both ways? They want me to dance as though no one were watching. But what if I just want to sit or stand in the Lord's presence and be still for a second.
I do believe that it is important to be in unity with your fellow believers, and that there are prescribed ways of worshipping the Lord in scripture, but the thing that alienates me the most is when I am being conformed into the likeness of those around me rather than into the image of Christ. If I want to dance and run around the church, I want it to be motivated by my love for God rather than my fear that the person in the pew next to me will think that I am not truly worshipping. To me part of true worship is honesty, and when I feel forced to worship a certain way by my church, I don't feel that I am worshiping God in spirit and in truth.
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