meditatio at the water's edge

I wrote the following last Friday morning and have been debating whether or not to post it. Well, I think there are some worthwhile questions, so here goes...

I don’t know why it grates on me so much. It may just be morning radio shows in general, but something about this ‘Christian’ version of it just gives me a stomach ache. I keep thinking, “O God, please make them stop.”

Here’s an equation: Commercials + Inane banter + trite Christian parodies of Motown songs + commercials = making me sick.

Really. Something in me is physiologically rebelling—crying out in gastro-enteric protest. All of the sudden I’m thinking about how compromised the so-called ‘Christian subculture’ in America really is.

Some questions I have…
Why do I feel like a heretic when I tell people to stop giving to a church budget and start giving to people in need?
Why is NPR more intellectually compelling than nearly everything I hear on ‘Christian Radio’?
Why are television stations and radio stations (not the Christians ones, by the way) the champions for feeding the hungry?
Why are suburban churches largely ignoring the mentally ill? (Too busy listening to Point of Grace, I think…)
Why are people ‘outside the church’ asking better questions than we are?
Why are we so excited just because people say, ‘Jesus’ on the radio? Are they really listening to what he said or does saying his name just make them feel good? Do they really want to share in his revolution or just a scrubbed up version of the greater culture—palatable to us of more polite tastes.
Are American churches really preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God or a milk-toast version of our American-dream-have-it-your-way-have-a-nice-day culture?
Is the current system sustainable?
Can we keep building buildings?
Can we sustain the structures that are in place?
Or better, can the present structures sustain us?

What will sustain us? It will be those who are seeking to follow Jesus in his revolution. It will be the vision of a new way of being a Christian—which is really the oldest way—the way of suffering (and joy) that comes from following Jesus—for lifestyle testimony to the Messiah.

They turned the radio station off at my request. I don’t like being negative about well-intentioned people, but we can’t let things continue this way. I guess I’m thinking that the current Christian subculture is not sustainable as is. Obviously things always change, but I’m suggesting that we may be in for a cataclysmic collapse of the current evangelical superstructure—like an ancient building collapsing under its own weight. Maybe it won’t be a cataclysmic collapse—maybe it will be more like a gradual collapse, but I feel like our churches have become less about following Jesus and more about producing attractive programs that rival those of our ‘non-Christian competition’ (i.e., Christian radio, booksto—I mean giftstores, etc.).

I don’t want to produce a ‘postmodern product’. I want to follow Jesus, and I’m willing to get rid of ‘church-as-I-thought-it-was’ if that is necessary.

I guess it’s not so new. Jesus’ disciples had to get chased out of Jerusalem before they went to the rest of Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Man, that sounds pessimistic. Really I am more hopeful, just not about the current trajectory of pop-evangelicalism.