church shopping goes to a whole new level

Just in case you're struggling to find that new church of the week you can now check out the new blog, Can I Wear Jeans? It has inspired me to start my own new blog called... www.willyourchurchsupportmyautonomousselfaswellasmysenseoftaste.com
Yes, the sarcasm is dripping off my fingers as I type this. The very questions being asked by this blogger indicate that theology has very little to nothing to do with how many people view their idea of the "perfect church". (Which in and of itself is a fallacy.)

Name of church?
City?
Website?
What's the worship music like? (Contemporary, hymns, long, fast, loud etc?)
What's the speaking like? (Old school Bible, culturally relevant, by video etc?)
What's the childcare like?
What's your favorite thing?What would you change?
Can I wear jeans?

This kind of "resource" demonstrates our intense need for an anthropocentric to theocentric shift. I'm writing this not because I'm moody today, but because the line of questioning above is indicative of the idolatry that is far too present in the American Church today. And the blog will probably turn out to be immensely popular. I'm guessing that many people who come across the blog will just assume that the bible is taught, that God is worshiped, etc. whatever. So this is my rant. What do you think? Please feel free to push back.

Comments

[Jared]

Long time listener, first time commenter

This kind of stuff drives me nuts! Theology is not even mentioned now a days.

2 years ago I resigned as a worship leader from a church of 4000 people... a church that was considered by most of evangelicalism to be a "good" church. However a new Sr. Pastor was hired, everything turned into making things relevant to the seeker and we thereby became completely irrelevant. God's word was not central, theology was totally absent from any of our practice and even our talks about why we were doing what we were doing.

I think we as American Christians are completely bored with the Bible...that is to say theology. I intentionally use the terms interchangeably. Theology is absolutely inescapable. Many of the Christians I interact with have 6 Bibles but couldn't tell you what the book of Hebrews or Galatians is about.

People wonder how the church in America got this way... I think it's clear. We think we are wiser than God. Our ideas about how to build a church trump his.

One last little thought...Am I the only one that long for transcendence and immanance in our worship? I know I am not, but why do so many churches think it's a sin to dress up when we go to worship God? If I was going to meet the president, or even going on a date I would dress up out of respect for the person I am meeting with, and because I took the meeting seriously. Why are we afraid to say that to people when they come to church? I think the bottom line is that people don't have a clue what is and should be happening when the church gathers for worship: God summons his people on his holy day, he addresses them through word and sacrament.... Hebrews 12:18-29.

However I guess blue jeans and flip flops are appropriate if you are just going to listen to a band and a motivational speaker. But if we understood that we are going to meet with God himself... a God who is really present...a God who is a consuming fire....I don't think we would be so flippant

How's that for long, and completely random thoughts!

[Brian Moss]

Jared,

Thanks for your comments. You compel to add that while I don't have a problem wearing a suit to church, I don't have a problem wearing jeans either. Thanks for your encouragement to be in the Word.

Brian

[Jeff]

Note: Brian and I have already talked about this some offline, as I was the one who originally sent him the link to the blog.

While I agree with your ideas here, Brian, and commend them, I think it misses the point of the site. From what I've seen, most church websites cover your points perfectly well - statement of faith, ministry opportunities, etc - but give no impression whatsoever about what things are really like in a faith community, for good and bad. Sorry for being shallow, but if the preaching is solid but the music sucks I probably won't go there. However, if it helps, I wouldn't do the reverse either. I've seen enough of THAT. (I will let them hire me to play in their worship band, though.)

I'm a little bitter on this subject because I hear a lot of talk from pulpits condemning church shopping- yet, for the most part, career pastors haven't had to find a faith community of their own for 10+ years. For them, it's a calling/vocation and at the same time a job hunt. They also have a greater ability to change the things that don't work than most of us do. The rest of us will see the things that don't work (note: I didn't say the things "I don't like") and move on somewhere else before getting too involved. It's not like there's not a lot of choices. Even within the Seattle Presybtery (USA) there are 60 churches, with quite a variety of both theology and worship styles. And varying degrees of metrosexual worship pastors, of course!

Seriously, though, if you move to a new town or your church implodes, how ARE people supposed to find a church without visiting a few first? Are you supposed to sign a membership covenant from a statement of faith on a church's website? Personally - I don't have time to visit every church in Seattle to find the right one for me. (Yes, I said it.) I have to rely on word of mouth and prayer.

Frankly, I appreciate every single one of the questions on the blog. Even the jeans one - it's not about my comfort level, it's what it says about the community itself. I like that I go to a church where I'd be equally comfortable (socially, and body temperature) in shorts or in a suit. And I've done both, on the platform as a musician, and nobody's ever given me grief about it in 6 years. (Except my mom, a few times. And I haven't brought the Utilikilts yet.)

This is particularly important when visiting a church for the first time - I want to have an idea of what is appropriate to wear in the community so I don't feel like a complete idiot. This happened to me once in college - for a college course in Christian formation, we were required to attend some radically different churches. Robin and I decided to visit a Mennonite church. Now, Robin's experience of a Mennonite church is from the East Coast, where the women wear button-to-the-neck shirts and head coverings, and the men wear black suits. So we dressed up. Nicely. And it turns out that these Seattle Mennonites were a bunch of hippies in jeans. We felt like IDIOTS and it completely detracted from our own ability to worship with the community.

Having the ability to ask a friend who attends the church some of these questions is nice, but it limits you to the churches that you already know people at. For newcomers to a city, or if you don't have friends at every single church in town, I think this site is a great resource. It also might shake up your false impressions of what other churches are like.

And, as much as we say that we shouldn't care about this stuff, I think we all really do and this site allows for that honesty.

[Brian Moss]

Jeff,

Thanks for your honest and well thought out comments. It looks like we've certainly hit on a topic of conversation as so far two of the responses have been longer than the post itself! While I feel that the site is still a bit artificial when it comes to asking the big important questions, I agree that there is nothing particularly wrong with the questions in and of themselves.

Brian