from the mom
Recently I started listening to Christian radio again. I gave it up for a time because I was a little sick of the navel-gazing touchy-feeley adolescence-exploring songs I kept hearing. Then I had children and started wondering if I should turn the dial again. When I did I was pleased to discover that Christian music had evolved again and there was quite a bit more emphasis on God and music that worships Him.
But the ads bother me. I know we have to pay for free radio somehow and I can get past the ads for insurance companies, car dealerships, and dentists. But the advertisements for churches are nauseating.
One church advertises that "you won't be judged." Really? Does this mean that Joe Blow who has just left his wife and four children for his secretary but wants to keep attending church while committing adultery can find a comfortable church home where he will be allowed to continue his reprobate lifestyle with no confrontation? Can Jane Doe who is extorting thousands of dollars from her employer come and sit in the pews and know that she won't be confronted with the immorality of her choices? I'm not exactly sure that the church should be a place where we are promised that we won't be judged. It should be a place where the Love and Truth of the Gospel are presented and those things should at times make us mighty uncomfortable to remain in our sin.
Another church actually "guarantees" that you will have "a good time." Hmmm.... I have attended church many a time when I did not have a good time, but it was good for me to be there. Sometimes I have a good time at church and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I walk into church wallowing in self-pity and am confronted with my small little world and my need to lay it down for something richer, better. This is usually painful. I like hanging onto my pride and self-sufficiency. But I don't go to church to be entertained. Most people, if they are honest with themselves, would much rather go to Disneyland. And what pressure for a church, a pastor, to have to deliver on a promise of a good time. What can they promise in return if they don't make good on the guarantee?
11 comments:
i once visited a church who started offering a "money-back guarantee" on tithes. they said if the giver didn't see a multitude of blessings as a result of giving the tithe, they could ask for their money back, no questions asked. what nonsense.
A hybrid of those two churches would be Max Lucado's church. I say that from many Sundays of experience. I call his sermons "greeting card sermons". You can never leave there feeling the need to improve your life; spiritual or otherwise.
Oh Rachelle! Rich and I wake up and half the time mock the morning attempts at humor, or yell at the ads or statements from the same morning people or song lyrics that are unbiblical, theologically unsound, etc. Then there are the songs where they emphasize a truth to the exclusion of the other half of it, you know, heresy, and I end up yelling at the radio about how that isn't the main point.
We have our alarm set there because it is "safe" and isn't vulgar, but I now listen to either Catholic radio or the Golden Oldies (680 am) in the car because I don't want to constantly be explaining to the kids why we don't actually believe the tripe in the church ads, the song lyrics, or the radio announcers spiel. At least with secular radio, you don't expect them to give any theology.
I especially despise the Casey Treat church ads. Most of those church ads, though, I am there with you, asking why we should be amused to death (a great book, btw, if you haven't read it), how their services bear any resemmblance to historical Christianity, or how it is exactly that they are conforming themselves to the world instead of the other way around.
Then, there was the morning the two hosts were gushing about how divorce and remarriage is a-okay, if the people feel bad enough about it, and don't be so legalistic, etc. Tell that to Jesus, who had some pretty direct words about it. Rich said the fellow sounded like someone who was about to leave his wife.
I'm going to link this post on my blog. Thanks for writing it, Rachelle.
Evidently, I have some strong feelings about this. Sorry for the long comment.
Yes, unfortunately many of today's churches are either run like businesses trying to get clients or they have wholly succumbed to contemporary anything-goes thinking, which is unbiblical.
It's really difficult to find a good church--one that doesn't compromise truth but, at the same time, is identified by its love.
What Amy said! Because the flip side of this is those churches out there that ARE judgment to a fault, and will shun you for not toeing the line. (The official Shunning is an extreme example. But plenty of ingrown churches can make you feel like an outsider if you don't do all the holy stuff.)
At the Celebrate Fairfax fair this year, there were rows of freebie booths, and among them were two Muslim booths and a church booth. The two booths on Islam didn't bother me half as much as the church booth bothered me.
"Love is our moral value.
Everyone is accepted. No exceptions. No kidding"
There's nothing inherently wrong in having a poster saying that, it's more the attitude that is tied in with the types of churches that advertise that way. Acceptance of everyone becomes the overriding imperative, leaving all sorts of sins to be welcomed into the church without comment.
I'm kicking myself now for not stopping at the Islamic booths for some discussion.
The problem isn't so much using the words "acceptance" and "love" as it is allowing the world to have a monopoly on their definitions.
What's wrong with having a good time at church? Is the spiritual value diminished if I actually enjoy myself?
A nice bit of intellectual honesty there Rachelle. I enjoyed it and you got some of your friends off and running as well. I could relate to each and every one of the comments. I don't think a "sabbath" goes by that I don't breath a sigh of relief that I'm not in church somewhere. On the other hand, I listen to a lot of christian programing (ok, I admit it, I am still searching). Just today in fact, I heard a speaker on a local christian station admit to something I'd never heard voiced in other presentations before. I found myself talking to the radio.
So I think my point would be that there are many expressions of christianity out there. If you need a little jab in the rear to straighten up then you need to choose your church accordingly.
Yeah, I hear Ranee for sure. I listen to family radio network for the music because they play the hymns I'm familiar with and I can sing along in my truck. And I smile to myself when some oxymoronic theological tidbit goes by in the lyrics. When the bible teaching comes along I go somewhere else. The bible teacher has set 2 dates for the second coming in the last 10 yrs or so and is now predicting 2011 is the date.
For now I choose not to darken the doorway of a church but just listen from the outside.
Uncle Gary,
If you're still searching, you might be interested in visiting http://www.lifestream.org/index.html for a different perspective.
It's too bad that many churches do a better job selling themselves than sharing their Savior, who is the whole point anyway.
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