I Hate My Church or I Hate the Church of Me.

Ok so let's get one thing out of the way before I go any farther, I love the Church. I have grown up "in" the Church. Ever since I can remember I have been attending Church services. With that being said I have to admit I hate the Church. Don't get me wrong I don't hate it all the time, only some of the time. A lot of you probably know what I am talking about. You get that feeling when your sitting on that pew, (or if your in a hip cool church, that plush chair that has no arms and is connected uncomfortably close to the chair and person next to you) and the thought hits you and you get that gaping hole feeling in the pit of your stomach, "Is this all there is to this?" As a minister that is a bad feeling because of course the only logical ending to that train of thought is, "Your kind of responsible for all of "this" that you are hating on so much right now." I have been getting a lot of those feelings lately. At first I thought it had something to do with the format that I was apart of, or as its better know as the "culture" of the Church. If we were honest with our selves congregations fall into only a few basic categories.

1) There is the ultra conservative, never changing, most likely dying a.k.a "old church." I think thats all that really needs to be said about that category.

2) Then there is the congregation that thinks they are progressive and contemporary but really they are just cheesy, the congregation who's Church sign out front doubles as a motivational speaker for people driving by i.e. "Prevent burning use Son block," the congregation that is excited because they just now got drums in the Church and they are going to start "contemporary" services next week which really means they are going to sing My Life is In You Lord for the first time ever and not well I might add. Let's for simplicity sake label this congregation the "unprogressive progressive Church."

3) Then we have the really cool hip Church. You know what I am talking about, you have seen them, go to one, or in fact may be the minister of one (for the record I'm jealous of you if you are.) As soon as you walk in you are handed a double shot mocha frappachino (fair trade of course), an organic T-shirt, and a guide on how to grow the perfect goatee. You step into the sanctuary, ahem excuse me I mean, "worship center," sorry my old Church roots were starting to show there, and you are immersed in a sea of savvy video clips, a Bono look alike singing the latest John Mark McMillian song, and a not overly dressed but just dressed up enough to know that he is in charge minister preaching to you sitting on a stool on a stage that looks like something straight out of the latest Urban Outfitters store set up. Minus the over priced clothes I mean come on now we are a social justice minded congregation.

Now it does not matter what culture you find your self in because I have found that the more people I talk to who attend all of the above mentioned Church styles, the more I realize that every single one of them gets that same pit in the feeling stomach as I do sitting in the congregation that I work for and worship at. By the way for those of you that are curious my congregation falls somewhere in between unprogressive progressive and some nether region that can not be placed in a category. We have John Mark one Sunday and the Old Rugged Cross the next. I have been thinking about this problem for awhile now. Why is it that no matter who I talk to it always seems that they are a little bit unimpressed with some aspect of their Church culture? Some people say, "Well people will always complain about something." Yes this is true, but the people I talk to are not complaining. They are not leaving their congregations to find something else, they are not screaming at the congregational meetings (OLD CHURCH ROOTS ALERT!) for better music or more Thomas Kinkade paintings in the foyer, they are simply searching for the authenticity of the Church they find in scripture. Could it be that no matter what Church culture you find yourself in we are all missing the point? When I look at the scriptures and observe how Jesus did ministry I notice something very interesting, he does not have to try very hard at all. People came to Jesus, people looked for Jesus, when Jesus was not around people wondered where he was. Jesus was so important to them that they would hike out for days and sit for days just to hear him speak. Why? Jesus did not have any cool church signs, savvy videos, mocha frappichinos, board meetings, drum sets, pulpits, organic T-shirts, organs, buildings, church growth conferences etc, and yet people flocked to him. How is it that Jesus was able to do ministry so well with so little? I think in a word it's authenticity. I have a feeling that the people that came and listened to Jesus never walked away going "Is that all there is?" I doubt they sat on the ground while he was teaching with that gaping pit feeling in their stomach like they were missing something, because when Jesus spoke the people knew that what they were hearing was most important words they would ever hear in their entire state of existence because they were hearing the very words of God. Could it be that we as a Church universal are trying to hard? Are we trying to hard to cater to the culture of people that we find ourselves in? Are the hipsters trying to hard to be hip and the unprogressive trying to hard to be progressive? I don't have an easy answer for that, but what I do know is that when I say that I hate Church it is not the Church in the scriptures that I hate, in fact it is not the Church at all that I hate, what I hate is what I have tried to make Church be. I hate that I have gotten so wrapped up in putting on a good program, making things fun, and making sure the same apathetic group shows up next week that I have lost a love for the Church that I once had. I have allowed my Church to taint God's Church. I have substituted the authenticity of the scriptures for flashy count downs and cute little sayings and I pay for it on Sunday morning when I leave unfed and disappointed. For the record I do not think any of the above mentioned techniques for carrying the gospel are wrong. If you want to use signs, use signs. If you want to have videos and t-shirts, and coffee, and goatees have them. But maybe you are where I am right now, if you are I would suggest that you step back for a moment and ask your self if you have allowed all of this stuff to snuff out the authenticity that the simple gospel message brings to a persons life.

So what do you think? How do you bring authenticity of the gospel message back to a Church culture that has allowed itself to lose it? How are you doing it in your congregation? I would love to hear your feed back.