My wife was asked a question a couple of weeks ago that seems to be haunting me. She was working the voting polls and somehow got on the subject of so many start up church. I think the question was "Why are so many people starting churches when there are so many establised churches in the area?" I can't even remember what her response was because it seems that I have been searching for the answer myself.
I woke up the other morning with the same question on my mind. I guess for me I have an answer. I can't answer for other people but the ones I've spoken with seem to have the same issues with the "established" churches in the area. I know for me that I am sick of the superficial charade that passes for worship in most of our churches. I watch the people on tv and see some worship leader at some megachurch with tanned skin, perfect hair, perfectly white and straight teeth entertain the masses. The music may be great but it lacks something. Our local churches are no different. We like to think they are but really they are the same. The worship leader gets up and entertains the masses. Whether that be 50 or 500. We concentrate so much on chosing music that is culturally relevant and appealing to the world that we have lost the whole pattern that God set for us. There can be no worship without the sacrifice.
The churches in our area don't appeal to me. I have not interest in a church that has three services to "meet the needs of the people". If the Worship Leader is doing his job and God's people are assembling for the right reasons then there will no reason for a contemporary service or traditional service. Jesus never did away with the law, he fulfilled it. So we cannot throw away the past and it's music as if it has no relevance. The founding church fathers fought and some died to break away from traditional, fettering religion of their day. The songs written by John and Charles Wesley have just as must cultural relevance today as they did then. I am not saying that "A Mighty Fortress Is our God" nessesarily gets me in the mood to worship. But given the circumstances of say 911 I would say that this is the song that comforted the church. I remember standing in the YMCA and watching in horror as the twin towers collapsed and thinking that for the first time in my life there was no song in my head. I was horrified. I didn't know what to do with a mind that wasn't mentally humming a song or hands that no longer constantly tapped out a rythym. I remember walking into our church santuary, sitting at the piano and thinking, "I have no song to sing". I began to pray that God would give me a song to not only comfort me but to speak peace to the congregation on Sunday. The song that came to me was Twila Paris' "God is in Control". I never liked the song before and had I been at some other church at some other time I might have been told that the song was old and had lost it's cultural relevance.
Anyway, back to the subject. I have tired of church as it is. I am tired of being required to shove God in a box and being required to perform like some monkey at a circus. My pleasure and my satisfaction is not what is important. My pleasure and satisfaction come when I know that God is pleased and that I have followed Him.
It is not responsibility to please my congregation or my pastor for that matter. It is my responsibility and primary objective to listen to the voice of God and do what He says. To seek His desire and plan for worship. When I sit at the piano my first prayer is always, "Lord, how do You desire to be worshipped?" When I follow that voice I cannot be wrong. When God is pleased then his people should be pleased. If they are not then that is a heart problem not a a God problem. You don't need to change worship leaders. You don't need to start the search commitee up again. I have been asked to leave more churches than I care to mention. I have been the cause of many a dropped jaw and dropped fork at a dinner table. Worship should never be designed for our pleasure! It should be designed for God's pleasure. But you know what? We can't please God no matter how we beat ourselves senseless. We could crawl on our knees from home to the altar and wipe our blood of sacrifice all over the nice clean carpet of the church and it would still mean nothing. We could open our mouths and utter the most angelic sounds imaginable but it would be like filth in the nostrils of God. There can be no worship without sacrifice! The sacrifice or coming before God sinless. We cannot deal with God until we deal with our sin. That is a constant thing for me. I must constantly be before the altar.
So, why are so many people starting churches?
When we left our much larger church and decided to attend a start up church it was because my family was tired of the superficiality of the churches in our area. We hungered for something real. We needed to be with people who shared our passions. I am so tired of fake christians, singing songs that they have no idea what they mean. I am tired of pastors who, instead of allowing their worship leaders to use their gifts with freedom, and TRUSTING them to do so, keep them under their thumb. I am tired of church being a competition to see who can get the most attention and "atta boys". Like God gives a flying rats butt who does what the best. All the "stuff" we do will be piled up and cast away like dog dookie and all that will remain will be the "REAL US". Scary! I am tired of worship leaders who don't have the guts to stand and be what God created them to be. So what if you have to have a few heated meetings with the pastor or the music committee? So what if you don't get as many atta boys as you used to? So what if you find yourself moving you and your family to yet another church? Martin Luther took a little heat too. Heck, Jesus took a lot of heat! Thinks cannot remain the same, we must change the way we view worship or we will spend the rest of our lives searching and looking for next great place where we can meet with God. Where we can meet with God with others.
Until then, I guess we continue to search and roam the earth liek nomads. I am reminded of the words of the song "More of You".
"Though my thirst drives me on
As I stumble along
Over ground so baren and dry
There's a spring just ahead
Living water, Lord, fill me I cry!"
Maybe this is not what the writter was thinking about when he wrote the song but it applies to us today. Our thirst drives us on!!
Blessings
Allen
