What I am sick of
- I’m sick of “church” that’s all about programs, not people.
- I’m sick of a bunch of showy people on stage pretending they’ve got it all together rather than walking the journey with us
- For that matter, I’m sick of the general fakeness. Of the masks, the pretending to each other that it’s all together, that everything is cool, oh and that we’re oh-so-spiritual. And a dash of false humility to go along with it.
- I’m sick of people not being able to share what’s really going on for them for fear of judgement or rumours being spread. By people in church, no less.
- I’m sick of hype. Gimmicks. Quick-fixes. Copying something from somewhere else to try and get a quick fix in our church. Cause it’s all about whatever statistic we’re measuring today.
- I’m sick of quick-fix theology. “Follow these four steps to a great life and everything will be fine.”
- I’m sick of a church’s key performance indicator being the number of bums on seats they attract on a Sunday morning.
- Actually, on that… what’s the deal with hot churches? Why do we follow whoever’s got the coolest music or most happening program or most charismatic leader who can hype us up the best or whatever? And then move on to the next flavour of the month church once the current one isn’t entertaining enough?
- I’m sick of leaders in church being elevated to God-like status. “Oh, my leader said this so it must be true. I must follow their word to the letter and not question it.” (I think that as a leader in my church I’m qualified to comment on that one without sounding like I’m taking a stab)
- I’m sick of said leaders doing the “I’m too high up/special/whatever to associate with normal people, I’m going to go and hang out with some other leaders in the VIP lounge” thing.
- What’s the deal with Christian celebrities? “Ooooh, such-and-such, an amazingly anointed [preacher|worship leader|whatever] is going to be at such-and-such a [church|event]. I have to be there!”
- Speaking of which, why do we never hear “Ooooh, such-and-such, an amazing [chair-setter-outer|usher|pack-up-assistant|multimedia-guy] is going to be there! I have to go!” Obviously those people aren’t important at all to our precious events.
- I’m sick of scripture being taken out of context to try and prove a point (often valid and in other parts of the bible, but using those bits wouldn’t be as easy to produce the hype we’re looking for).
- I’m sick of orthodox pat answers to questions
- I’m sick of church being an big company rather than a community of believers.
- I’m almost tempted to say I’m sick of big churches. That’s not true though, big churches are great. I’m sick of churches that are all about bigness though. I can’t be in community with 2000 people. I can be with 15.
- I’m sick of churches that are so inward focussed and “aren’t we wonderful” and “everyone should be like us”
- I’m sick of Christians from said churches trying to tell me why their church is amazing and I should be like them
- At the same time, I’m also sick of Christians who are comfortable with their Christianity and have no heart for people who don’t know God.
- I’m sick of the fact that anyone reading this who follows the church party-line (which I’m pretty sure is no one who I’ve given the link here to) who reads this is going to be “very disappointed” or try and bust me because I’m “speaking against the house of God and the anointed leaders of the church”, and not even think about anything I’ve just said.
This isn’t directed at any particular church (hey, I love my church even though it exhibits several of the above qualities at times), but just a lot of stuff I’ve noticed over the years in various churches/events/Christians that has bugged me.
The question now is what to do about it.
I seem to be thinking way too much like the emerging church crew that I've always thought were too busy bagging church as it is at the moment to do something else useful. Maybe there's something more in it...
posted by Jason at
11:11 pm
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3 comments
