Repentance

Ok, so here's my promised repentance for last night's post. If you haven't read it, please do.

I'm truly sorry if my language offended you: When I read the "offending" article, I was moved to tears. I was livid, and sometimes when I'm really passionate about something, strong words help get the point across.

I apologize if my attitude was ungodly. It's not very often something comes up that makes me so blasted angry. In my anger I know I was lacking grace. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions (if I did). I know I had little information, and what I had was vague. But I think the graphs they shared don't lie. If there really is more to it than the information they provided, I would love to know what the truth really is.

I'm NOT sorry for being pissed (is pissed a bad word?). I think any place that calls itself a church ought to be ashamed for even daring to publish this. What pride there must exist for a church to think that people reading this article will feel GOOD about what the church is doing with their tithe!

It's not often that I choose to share things when I'm this passionate. I know that being passionate generally gets me into vocabulary and attitude trouble. But this time, I couldn't help myself from sharing.

One clarification I want to make about my rant:

I know that if I were to look at each individual person who is involved in this church, I would find most people are wholeheartedly seeking after God, people are generous and kind, loving and accepting.

But when I look at thee church as an entity, I see sickness.

How is it possible that the sum of the whole could have deviated so far from the collective hearts of the parts?

So last night I was conversing with my husband about my passion for this subject (consumerism, frivolity and waste in the church), he asked me this

"What do you think should be done about it?"

I began thinking about the practical application of "fixing" this problem.

Tough question. It takes a little time to turn the Titanic around.

Obviously there is nothing that can be done very quickly, unless the hearts of everyone in the congregation were to simultaneously become outrageous agents of change.

I mean, we can't immediately sell the building and begin meeting in houses. We can't just fire all the staff. We can't suddenly not offer the circus of amusement and events that everyone is accustomed to.

Here's my idealistic take on what could happen.

For starters, we can preach from the pulpit that we have messed up, big time, that we are so far off track we don't even remember how we got here.

Preach about how the church as an entity doesn't even tithe; we don't give even 10% of our income to really helping others. Speak about how much we spend on the buildings, the mortgage, the property taxes, the maintenance, the utilities. Tell about how many people we have on staff and how much we pay them, not that they aren't each and every one entirely worth their salaries, but is there a better way to spend our money? Engage us about how much we spend on programs (including children's ministry) and their supplies -- books and workbooks and videos and advertising.

Then ask the question of the congregants "What should we do about it?"

Now the really frustrating part in all this is simple: people are downright proud to belong to such a large, prosperous, technologically advanced church. They enjoy the programs and they utilize the ministries.

I say, "Ask not what your church can do for you, ask what you can do for your church."

And all the people say, "Huh?"

I am as guilty as anyone. I was one of the few, the proud. I LOVED my church. I was passionate for it. But I guess in this season on exile I God had something to teach me that I didn't expect.

That God didn't create the church for the Christians. It's not for our benefit, our pleasure. The church is a place where we can be built up and encouraged in community, so that we can go out and make disciples. It's not meant for us to camp in the church, it's meant for us to take a break there so we can be refueled in our mission.

Paul was a tentmaker. Let's not overlook the fact that God could have had Paul be a brick-maker. He could have been a builder. He could have been an architect. He could have been a plumber or an electrician (Ok, well maybe not, but you get my drift). God could have given Paul a trade that participated in building the church as a structure. Instead, he participated in building the church as a spirit, and had a trade that was representative of what church should be like.

When we get to a place where we are spending more (not just a little more, but far, far more) on church structures (the buildings, the salaries, the programs) instead of church spirit (love, generosity, missions) , then we have seriously lost our way.

Ok, I'll be done now.