A friend posted a link on Facebook to an Op-Ed piece from the New York Times called "Congregations Gone Wild" that talks about clergy burnout. Being married to a man who went through seminary and currently works in a church and friends with a good number of ordained ministers, this article seemed relevant.
The author, G. Jeffrey MacDonald, talks about the growing expectation that parishioners have that church ought to be a place where they are made to feel validated, be it politically, emotionally, or physically though rarely spiritually. They want slide shows and rock bands but they don't want hard truths or unanswered questions or contemplative silence.
It's more than a bit depressing to think about the scores of people who expect religion to be entertainment rather than something deeper. It shouldn't be the pastor who has the biggest budget, the best suits, the most neutral sermons, and the flashiest shows who brings in the most people.
I thought for a long time that maybe I just wasn't "getting" church because the church functions I attended with friends in high school and early college left me cold. Altar calls, superficial (and poorly written) praise music, and judgement flung about at those standing apart from the herd were all I saw and they made me feel uncomfortable and icky. I didn't know why. I still felt a desire to worship somewhere, to read and learn about God and the history (cultural/political/spiritual) of man in relation to God but I couldn't figure out how to do that in a way that felt appropriate.
It wasn't until I began dating Craig that it finally clicked. For the first time in my life I found someone who was a Christian but who could speak intelligently about it. We could sit down and have a discussion about religion. I could ask, bait, pester and, for the most part, he could keep up. :) He showed me that a person can engage on an intellectual level with religion, still harbor doubts, and come away the better for it. And the best part - he didn't need the flash.
Don't get me wrong - Craig loves his fancy high church stuff but that wasn't what was important. He didn't fall back on the surface stuff to get him through. It was so freeing to attend church with him and hear sermons which messages based on the readings at hand and giving guidance and information. It wasn't the weird affirmation gospel that I had encountered in high school. There weren't projectors showing us pictures in lieu of words and there weren't painfully hip people scattered conveniently through the crowd smiling so much their faces hurt.
So often I've had discussions with people who want church to be a place to give everyone warm fuzzies, to make everyone who enters comfortable. I do believe that churches need to meet the people where they are but it shouldn't stop there. MacDonald in his article points out that this constant attempt to come up with the new, the pleasing, the happy is exhausting. It's exhausting because life isn't always kittens pooping rainbows and church isn't the band-aid. The world is broken and the church, being of the world while looking elsewhere, is as well. If you strive to make everyone happy/comfortable/entertained you become diluted and eventually you give up.
I started this post solely to link to a thought-provoking article that seemed relevant to a number of my friends but I've obviously wandered down the rabbit hole that is my relationship with organized religion. I know I come to the table of the church universal from a unique perspective. I am a historian and I feel the pull of the traditional - ie hymnals instead of Powerpoint, hymns instead of insipid songs of the category (as a friend described) "Jesus is my bearded boyfriend", reflection and sacredness, repetition in service, etc. I am, after all, the girl who had "put asunder" used in our wedding vows in lieu of the newer phrasing because it's a great descriptive phrase that should be used more often. :) I also come to the table firmly in the camp of women's rights, gay rights, universal healthcare, education for all, and all the rest of those touchy-feely left leaning tendencies that cause my extended family and Craig's to silently cringe (which is ironic because I think my religious tendencies cause my immediate family to cringe - haha). I'm a contradiction and I'm okay with that. When I pray, read the bible, talk to God on a walk, or attend church I'm looking to connect with the past, the present, and the forever all at once.
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