...The church is NOT a resting place...the church is people.
Three weeks ago I met up with some longtime friends ( we are actually old HA but young at heart, so...) at Starbucks. On Palm Sunday.
I had never missed a Palm Sunday church service in my life, until last year. Even the year prior, when my long-suffering eldest awaited a surgery that would either heal or end his life, we went to Palm Sunday, and then spent Easter in the ICU post-surgery.
That was the day I stopped going to church in my heart, because no one came to see us. No one. Church was more important to our friends and our pastors than the reasons they recite in the pews every Sunday.
I studied the Church for an entire year after that, ever my father's daughter in the quest for knowledge and basis in fact.
Once upon a time Easter was celebrated every Sunday. In fact the Catholics still celebrate Easter every time they take the Eucharist, one of the many ancient traditions perpetuated, along with many others, documented over the decades, that we will not revisit here.
Used to be that folks celebrated by prayer and petition to be worthy of the Easter story weekly, giving cause during the week to behave themselves accordingly OR confess their sins to such if not, just in case The Rapture happened whilst they were elsewhere than the sanctuary.
It was NOT the Once-A-Year-Eggstravaganza following a month-long Lenten Gloom-to-The-Tomb. The season when so many Protestant pastors work themselves into a frenzy vying for the market share of once-a-year parishioners with The Best Easter Sermon/Power Point/Praise Band Ever in the History of Mankind. The season after the dead of winter has passed, when everyone who didn't get zapped for their year's transgressions sobs on Maundy Thursday in penance. The season to celebrate by dressing up and dropping inordinate amounts of money into the Easter Sunday offering plates in gratitude.
The Church became a business, after the Apostles were all martyred and couldn't stop them. The apostolic church, founded on spreading the Good News, cornered the market on guilt and demanding dollars for dispensations somewhere in the 4th or 5th century. Martin Luther nailing 500 theses against this practice 1,000 years later has not lessened the rush to fill the pews, be the best, show those (take your pick) Catholics Methodists Baptists Lutherans Presbyterians how to "reach the unchurched with love and grace and the good news of Christ.". Often, not always, code for, " raise more revenue to keep our building up and running."
Three weeks ago, we discussed all of this at Starbucks, which is not a church, although folks do bow to the goddess of caffeine there quite frequently. We discussed real love, real sacrifice, real forgiveness, most of which goes on outside of the church, which makes perfect sense.
No business model includes love, forgiveness, and sacrifice. Business models, according to MIT students Weill, Malone, D’Urso, Herman, and Woerner in 2004, fall into these categories:
"(Creators, Distributors, Landlords and Brokers). Next, by considering the type of asset involved (Financial, Physical, Intangible, or Human), 16 specialized variations of the four basic business models are defined."
Which one does your church fall into? Hopefully none...but so many sadly do.
My granddad, born 109 years ago today, never had a big congregation ( probably much to the chagrin of my socially-driven and formerly wealthy grandmother). He pastored little tiny churches across the Midwest and in Colorado, tending to one small flock at a time, with his soft-spoken, sincere, level-headed wisdom which he sought from the worn Bible in his hand. His father had been a blacksmith. His mother, a bright-eyed wisp of a thing, quiet like her son, big-hearted, and faithful.
No mega church. No radio hour, no book signings, no gift store/coffee bar just across from the sanctuary. No 20,000 seat auditorium, no congregation tied to a General Assembly, General Conference, Presiding Bishop, none of that.
Just a quiet, heartfelt, never in your face ministry that touched countless lives, mine included, over 60 years.
I would love to go back to church. I don't know how. I am neither a huge financial contributor, nor am I needy. I don't ascribe to any dogma, and they all have it. I don't need to be nurtured, comforted, or surrounded by people who love me. I have that in my life. I'm sure I could learn so much more about God if I went back, but I'm also sure that what I would hear might, j u s t might be slanted politically or denominationally ( which go hand in hand these days).
I felt more spiritually nurtured by the non-church fellowship at Starbucks than I have in a long time. Like a kid at summer camp, away from tradition but still hearing the Good News.
The world needs more men like my granddad, who did not seek glory, did not force his faith on others, but simply lived to share it. The world needs more fellowship unfettered by denomination and the expectations assigned to each one.
The world needs Jesus. Not the Sunday School Jesus, or the Jesus Christ Superstar Jesus, but the Jesus who came to be born, live and die here, who never flipped the switch and struck up the band to get the show started. Instead He went quietly into the darkness.
The world needs Jesus.
