I was reading Clay’s blog tonight and my comment started turning into a blog post, so I shortened the comment and decided to write my thoughts on my own blog.

His blog was about a church near him that is advertising a “Patriotic Sunday”. His point (I hope I am accurately summarizing here) is that there is a line that should not be crossed in making our Country or a flag the object of our worship. I totally agree with that assessment and I also agree that using something like this to draw seekers can be questionable.

My particular soap-box was constructed a few years back. I was in a church Christmas play about how the season was so commercial, we take our good fortune for granted and need to re-center our focus on Christ. Roger that.

Then it happened… I didn’t know it was coming, and from the look of things my Dad (the pastor) didn’t know it was coming either. Someone stands up at the front of the church and says something to the effect of “Does someone hear Reindeer?” and Santa busts through the center isle door. Right in the middle of the sanctuary they set up this big chair and put Santa in it for all the kids to come tell him what “stuff” they want for Christmas.
I was livid. If there is a stronger word for livid, that would be more accurate. I was inconsolable. How can we do this? We just told everyone that they needed to focus on Christ during Christmas, and immediately turn around to tell them “Nevermind, ask for more junk”.

Since then, my disingenuous detector has worked overtime when it comes to church services. Anything that I perceive as being duplicitous, phony or overly theatrical makes me want to scream. I’m no stuff-shirt when it comes to church. I don’t think there are many valid “sacred cows” in worship, but when it comes to sending a message about our Savior, I think we need to be clear and consistent.

While I am on a rant: As someone who basically left the faith for a few years, I can tell you that from the outside looking in nothing is more unattractive than the fake fun we sometimes as Christians want to portray. I’m all for good wholesome fun, but when it is so over-the-top-kindergarten-teacher-driven cheesy “fun” I don’t think we do ourselves any favors. To me, it was insulting that Christians thought they were fooling me with how much fun they were allegedly having. It wasn’t until I met a group of guys who would drink a beer and talk about Jesus that I came back to Christianity. They weren’t faking anything, they were just people having fun and they happened to be Christians. They lived within the boundaries (i.e. they weren’t getting drunk and talking about Jesus), but they were real and they really love Jesus.

People want us to be who we say we are, and any attempt at faking it just turns them off.

So, I’m sure I took a left turn here somewhere into something totally unrelated to Clay’s blog, but I decided that while I had the soapbox out I might as well get it all off my chest.

Well, I took a half day and mowed my grass today. I was almost positive that, had I run out of gas, a search party would have to be sent out with machettes and slingblades to find me. I had managed to really let the yard get out of hand.
I made the trip home early to get that done for two reasons:

1. It’s likely to rain tonight and lets face it, if this got anymore out of control I might as well have waited and let my dad bail it for hay.
2. Tomorrow, Ann and I are playing in a golf tournament and i wouldn’t have time even if it wasn’t too wet to mow.

So tomorrow is pretty full. Ann is going to the Bloomin Festival in Cullman early tomorrow and then we’re off to the golf tourney. It’s for a good cause, Trinity Baptist Church missions. Plus, we get to play with Josh and my boss/friend Mike. It’s Ann’s first golf tournament, and she’s a little nervous but I think she’ll do fine. Luckily for all of us, this is best ball format so only one of the 4 of us has to have a good stroke at a time. That reminds me of a video of Robin Williams talking about golf. It’s not appropriate for younger viewers, but if you can overlook the unneccesary and unending use of the “F Bomb”, it’s pretty funny.

Anyway. Sunday is going to be great. Of course, church is going to be good. Then it’s on to Mom’s house for our April b-day lunch. Getting together with my family is usually great, thankfully!

Should be a full weekend, but I think it will be fun!

It’s entirely possible that I screwed up tonight. For the first time in years… possibly a decade, I played basketball at our church get-together. I held my own, I guess. I scored two baskets, and played pretty aggressive defense and most importantly I didn’t pass out or injure myself.

The problem comes in the morning. Will I be able to get out of the bed? Will I be able to walk to the shower? Can I drive to work?

I’m thinking of investing in a case of Aleve and Ibuprofen.

I burned some serious calories, though!

Wow. So next Sunday is “Senior Adult Sunday” at my church. Most places that would mean that we would recognize the folks who are “senior adults” (which by the way is the politically correct way of saying “Old People”. I hate political correctness, but I digress). Unfortunately however, we have managed to let one of the “SA’s” take over this thing and it has turned into a full out 3 ring circus. I’m talking about showboating in the worst kind of way. I don’t want to gripe. I don’t like to complain. It is important though that we recognize a few things here. The church we go to is very much a contemporary church, we have praise and worship music, the pastor doesn’t wear a tie often, and it’s common to see people in shorts and a t-shirt. We’re very laid back in a lot of ways. In fact we’re so laid back, we actually manage to incorporate some hymns along the way without getting into the “Cabin in the Corner of Gloryland” stuff, and it’s very effective. There are some powerful words in a lot of the old hymns. Many of them were written by people who were in touch with God and really in a spirit of worship.
This however, has turned into something altogether nightmarish. I NEVER want to hear the words “Dress Rehearsal” in reference to a church service. Ever. I have always hated that mentality. There is no leadership of the spirit allowed in “Dress Rehearsal”. It is structure for the sake of structure and it doesn’t allow for the Holy Spirit to move in any way. I understand wanting to rehearse, make sure the musicians know their parts and the singers know their words but when it gets into the mindset of “Dress rehearsal” it becomes two things: 1) a Show, and 2) pretensious.

Furthermore, in our practice today (again, no problem with practice, you can’t do music without practice) my soundman instinct kicked in. I can deal with microphones that are set up by someone else. I don’t mind if you beat it with a hammer if I have no sense of ownership. If I set up the mic’s, don’t touch them. I put them where they are for a reason. Don’t move them, don’t re-adjust them, don’t flip switches. You don’t know what you’re doing. Just stop. Again, I digress.

I just have a real problem with people wanting to turn a church service into a show instead of doing things that honor God. When it becomes about you and your ideas, and not about how we can do things better to lift God up, then in my book you are treading on very dangerous ground and it makes my skin crawl. I don’t like being a part of it. That spirit is what has caused so many people to look at church as being fake. I don’t know if i’m adequately explaining it, but suffice it to say, I feel like this service is going violate the trust of the congregation. If someone is there, or brings a friend because they want to get them into a church where there is genuine worship this sunday, then we can go ahead and write them off. They won’t be back. It is very very frustrating.

What…A…Nightmare.