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Christianity was supposed to be about becoming like Jesus. | |
We went in the wrong direction. |
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Why It Is Hard To Go To Church
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| From a consumer
perspective church is boring. Sermon lectures often fail to engage
interest or seem to provide useful information. Many churches attempt
to capture the consumer interest with upbeat music and sermons peppered
with amusing anecdotes and humorous stories gleaned from the pages of
books such as , “Make your sermon more interesting”. The appeal to the consumer interest can slightly increase church attendance, however, those seeking a closer walk with the Lord may still find little to draw them in. Even those seeking entertainment my not be long satisfied with church attempts to compete with the world in that arena. Perhaps a more fundamental problem with churches can be seen when considering them as organizational systems. A system is usually set up to process components. Christianity was supposed to be about relationships (us with God and each other). Systems can move people through events, activities, lectures, and entertainment, however, systems cannot do relationships. Some churches attempt to make relationships work with small group bible studies, pot luck dinners, or work groups. These attempts often expose a more significant problem of our age, that we do not like other people. The sterile and mechanical processing of people has the advantage of keeping us from inflicting our deficiencies on each other. Up to 100 years ago most people grew up with large and extended families. This social developmental exposure almost forced people to accommodate the idiosyncracies of others. Most today have not had to adjust to a diversity of personalities and can find closeness to others very uncomfortable. Most of our social development comes from TV characters that are intentionally constructed to be inoffensive. This results in an even lower tolerance for individual differences. Church should be where we learn to not only tolerate each other, but also love each other. If any church actually practiced this, people would even be more reluctant to attend. Additionally, boredom can come from twelve years or more of classroom exposure that inclines us to think this is how learning is accomplished. Up until 100 years ago most learning was accomplished through apprenticeship. This also helps develop relationships. The philosopher Sarte was supposed to have said, “Hell is other people”. If we could actually learn how to apply Christianity to relationships, we might see more value in attending church. Churches were formed and continue by their influence from the world. The individual Christian who seeks more from a church may have to go through or around a church to see if he can find someone from whom to learn or with whom he can have familial sort of relationship. This may have to be done surreptitiously as few in churches are inclined to anything different than what they have always done. Today those who seek the deeper Christian life mostly have to search out videos, books, and web sites on the Internet and glean whatever nuggets they can find. While one may grow in wisdom, knowledge, discernment, and understanding through bible study, relationships often require more exhaustive searching. |
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Information about Christianity and the Christian life. |
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