19 - Choich Soivices

Imagine: you're a member of a group which claims to be the guardians of a fantastic truth: they claim to know the being who not only created the Earth and everything in it, but also took a fantastic decision to rescue Man from his tendency to career towards bad stuff and offer a way out, without violating the sanctity of free will. Everyone within this group believes that the Creator became incarnate and lived a holy life, challenged those who claimed to represent him in a massive and legendary way, and then, just when things were looking pretty sweet for the Revolution, got executed, only to come back to life (that's right!), showing that death was defeated and a new way of doing things was now in place.

Regardless of which side of the fence you're on (left, right or on top), imagine that. Imagine that this is actually what happened, and that you're one of the representatives of this belief on earth, acting out the logical consequences of it to those who do not believe it. What do you do, then, in that case?

Well, apparently, you join a community of similar-minded people and, like, do some stuff, you know?.

Well, when I say "community", what I mean is, you go to a building once every seven days, say hello to some people, stand up, sing some songs, sit down, pray, stand up, sing more songs, sit down, listen to a guy (usually a guy, possibly a girl) speaking for 20 minutes, and then stand up, sing some more songs, and go and have a cup of tea. Some people join a cell group or house group or small group or whatever you choose to call it, some get involved with particular missions, some help out with admin in the church, some raise funds. A large amount don't really do anything extra-curricular.

The point of this post is to try to explore how and why we are doing Church the way we do it in this present day. Think about some of the elements:

• Worship - Some would argue that this is the biggest point of church: giving praise to the God who has done so much, both personally and historically, for each one of us. No strings attached praise. Except that it's not really "no strings attached", because we do one main thing: we sing songs. Nothing wrong with that, but is that the only way to praise or worship our Heavenly Father? Is there anything else we could do?
  Even then, we still only keep to a certain subset of rules within the narrow subset of worship that is singing. Firstly, let's have a band. A guitar (acoustic, of course; electric would be a bit too much for some of the congregation, and besides, who ever heard of music made with electric guitars becoming popular?!) is most common, often a piano, and typically drums and a bassist. Oh, and let's have a male singer and some female backing singers, because men typically play the guitar and you couldn't possibly have a lead singer who wasn't also playing an instrument. And besides, men's voices are so much more powerful and... leadery than women's. Oooh, and let's sing songs which often don't actually praise God directly, but often make the claim that the singer is about to praise God, or knows that he/she has good reasons for doing so when he/she feels the time is right. Songs which, when compared to the secular music scene, could be happily compared with much of the content that was being released fifty years ago, but nothing released much later than that.

• Prayer - also a very important part of some face-time with God. Actually talking to him, rather than just telling him he's awesome. Praying for world events, often, maybe some people within our community who have particular problems or ailments, and maybe the odd abstract concept or two. But let's not really pray; let's get someone up at the front to say some words while we shut our eyes and pretend to ourselves that we're also praying the same words while in fact our mind is drifting off to think about that argument or the football or that new person over the other side of the room who's rather attractive. And if we do squeeze in a time of silence for each person to pray individually, let's only make it a minute or two (we can't have these prayers drifting out of control!) and have the leader speaking.....slowly.....but constantly....over the top....during the "quiet"....reminding people....of things.... to pray about... in the quietness.... and stillness.... of their own hearts.... Usually with the acoustic guitar or piano playing the chords of the next song which will be up shortly, folks.

• Teaching - a great opportunity for those who have genuine, amazing wisdom, to share it with those who wish to explore the deep mysteries of our God, to try to fathom some of the wonderful unfathomableness of our Creator, to know how to live lives which please Him better. Or (if you like), to sit there while someone talks at you for 20-30 minutes. You won't be given anything to take home, or notes to read, and often there will be nothing to look at other than the speaker. And the speaker is not a doer while he's speaking. Oh no, he's a speaker, alright. People won't even ask questions. They just sit there and hear, and hope some of it makes sense to them, and that the bits which make sense stick in the mind. And that the bits which stick in the mind have an obvious translation into the way in which we live our lives on a day-to-day basis. And that we remember to actually do them on that day-to-day basis. Because, after all, there's no real follow-up - no one's ever going to actually ask you about what you did with the information, are they?

• Communion - I have to confess to having nicked this bit from someone else. Imagine that you were commanded by your Lord and Saviour incarnate to remember Him by recreating the last meal that he had before His death and resurrection. Bear in mind that we live in a society which adores food: cook books by Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, et al, regularly top the non-fiction bestsellers, we go out to restaurants, have dinner parties, and spend a good proportion of our days in our rich, well-fed land looking forward to that awesome meal we're going to be having this lunchtime/tonight. To have a good meal, chatting with friends, laughing, eating and drinking is one of the most social, fun, connecting ways to reach out to others. Now imagine that you're on the committee deciding how best to remember this meal. You'd come up with ideas for feasts, buffets, banquets, massive hog-roasts or barbeques, and all sorts of salads, breakfasts, and so on, no? But then - ah-ha! - someone comes up with the ingenious suggestion that we take the tiniest, smallest piece of bread which actually tastes like cardboard, and the smallest fraction of a sip (or whatever said cardboard-bread can absorb in the 0.015 seconds you have to dip it into and out of the chalice) of the wine which you wouldn't even give to your dog. Claps all round. Give that man a biscuit.

• Community - living with the discipline required to give God what he deserves and wants from you is an incredibly difficult thing. But it becomes so much easier when those around you are also doing the same thing: sharing wisdom, discipling and being accountable to each other, confessing sins, engaging in mission, praying as a unit, giving their resources to the common goal, being creative and having a great deal of fun. So how do we go about these things then? Well... we go to church once a week (on Sundays, even though the Jews actually have the Sabbath on Saturdays), for an hour or two, maybe twice that day if we're feeling doubly committed this week. We have the odd chat before and after. Oooh, and we sometimes go to cell group as well... once a week for... an hour or two...

OK. Enough of this. I don't know about you, but I'm not really sure that our churches are doing their job properly. Of course, not all of the above applies to every single church. But the vast proportion of churches are simply subscribing to the traditional, common way of doing things rather than really making a strong effort to change and adapt to make us into one people again; to think about what they are offering and how that best suits us. What are our churches actually adding to the lives of their members, other than the vague sense of community it brings? What was that thing that bloke said in that book about new wine and old wineskins?

If you think that your church is pretty good, are you sure that it couldn't be better? My apologies if I'm being unfair to anyone: if your church is not like this, good for you! Do you live anywhere near me?

...So what I'm proposing is a reboot. It worked with Batman, so it can work with us. What I want you all to do is to look at the following components which are massively important to the life of Christians...

• Worship
• Prayer
• Teaching
• Communion/Mission
• Community

...and I want you to come up with some ideas for what we can do to make the most of each of them, to live our lives as God wanted. How can we best worship God? How do we make sure lots of people are praying and conversing with God? How do we get the most out of teaching, applying it to our lives and growing? How should we best provide communion and, as an extension, what are the best ways to actually do the things God wants us to do (provide to the poor, help out in war-torn lands, etc.)? How can we be the best community?

This post has ended up where I didn't intend it to be, but I'm pleased it's there. While you're brainstorming, think to yourselves what the reasons are why Lee Abbey is so brilliant:

Is it because we're in a place where teaching abounds, not just from one central speaker but from people sharing constantly in tiny groups?
Is it because people feel comfortable worshipping not just in song but in dance and art and myriad other ways, and there are constant opportunities to do these and be creative, throughout the day?
Is it because it is a fantastic community of people eager to learn and do and live for God?
Is it because this is all day every day, for one or two weeks solid, rather than just one or two days a week?
Is it because we sacrifice the things which complicate our lives, such as television and mobile phones, and even eat and sleep simply, as one community?
Is it because everyone is welcome, regardless of nationality or faith or background?
Is it because every single person in that community is looked after, cared for, and loved?
Is it because those of us called to serve as leaders serve not for our own gain but for the Kingdom of God?

Think, and tell me: what's your ideal for the way we should be living - not what we believe or think about ethics or historicity or anything else like that, but living - as a community of Christians?