the show must go on...

It's winter to the fullest, and it's beginning to look like 'church' will be cancelled around the area in the morning. But what about the show? All of the prep that has gone into getting ready for the weekend 'services?'

Like the below zero windchills of this Saturday morning, I've been woken to the reality of cold winds hitting my face this week. By that I mean, I have friends pastoring at large churches... good churches... and nearly all of the energy of the organization goes into the Sunday event.

While we take a very subdued approach to worship gatherings with water's edge, I must say -- it is good to concentrate our energies on other places besides the Sunday gathering. Vision statements and mission statements are the buzzes of this decade, and I am wondering where they are getting us?

I am not asking if your church or my church is growing in numbers. Numbers are often said to be indicators of health... really?

If this were the case, why did Jesus maintain 12 intimate disciples? There was the ring of 70 disciples, but that didn't move to the ring of 3000. Yet, our mission and vision statements are usually bent on growing us in numbers rather than growing us in discipleship.

We talk about disicipleship, but what is it really costing us? Are we seriously struggling to follow Jesus? Are our dollars donated, our hours of giving, our devotion to the poor, our devotion to the creation (yes - green issues) increasing?

Are our hearts increasingly being broken for the things that broke the heart of Jesus? Do we find our hearts and minds being torn between our own desires and the ways of the kingdom?

I submit that I don't have all of the answers, but I do know this. The kingdom of God is not about the weekend show so people can simply get their butts into heaven. Either we need to adhere to the fullness of the gospel with Jesus proclaiming that the kingdom is at hand... and live into it, or we are stuck with the show.

Intentionally drawing this stark contrast for the following reason: IF we put our energies into the weekend show, what are we saying about the value of life between Sunday 'services'? Service is exactly what we have grown many churches into... like changing the oil in the car, 'getting fed.' We've positioned the church to energize us for 65 minutes so that we can be fired up for another week of life.

BUT here is a point of tension, biblically the church is meant to be a representation of the kingdom. It is meant to be a collection of people who live into a different reality than 'lost' humans. BUT, by and large it is not that.

It has become a feeding station so that we feel good for another week. While 'Christians' go to church on Sunday to feel good for seven days, football fans go to the 'Big House' or the 'Superdome.' Concert goers connect with emotions that allow them do do crazy things apart from their personalities. Bar patrons enjoy 'happy hour' to escape their reality and create something that doesn't really exist after consuming enough liquids. So, how is the weekend 'show' any different?

Go ahead and argue that it is about God, it's about biblical teaching. But here is the deal... Jesus and the writers of the New Testament didn't encourage us to primarily focus on our vision statements, our mission statements, and our Sunday gatherings. With Jesus dying on the cross, the temple curtain rips apart. The holiness of God goes out. It is no longer hidden or contained. Yet...

We've brought it back to the temple. We have our weekend shows that tell us how we are doing based almost entirely on attendance. And we have forgotten that we don't need the high priests to present God to us.

If the gospel is reality, then we need to live into this reality -- the reality of the Spirit among us and the kingdom as reality now. AND we need our churches to stop counting people. Instead, we need our churches to live as holy Israels. We need to live as God's chosen people called to live a different kind of reality than numbers. I submit that I push against a great many churches with this language.

Yet, I am to the point where I believe that the gospel has been truncated to fit the desires of organizations we call churches... and the gospel has been truncated to fit mission statements and vision statements so that we can show 'success' as churches. Then I can say, "My church is doing well. We are growing."

But we miss opportunities to live the kingdom by adhering to the Sunday show as our means of saving souls. Either we are capable of proclaiming the kingdom life by the actions of our lives or we are not.

And perhaps this leaves us at the crossroads. Either followers of Jesus will make a difference by keeping in step with the Spirit, or we will leave it to the Sunday show. We can not have it both ways.

Either the primary actions of the church will be the Spirit moving among people who follow the ways of Jesus or... or it will be about getting people to 'the show' on Sunday to get butts into heaven.

AND perhaps my greatest tension... pastors and staff members need to put all things into the Sunday show. So, while they may claim to desire living in step with the Spiriti seven days a week, their reality becomes focused on the weekend shows. We can not claim one reality and live another.

Pastors get fired for looking at porn and having affairs because they are not supposed to live into that reality. Yet, we have fully embraced that they put on a great 'service' for the sake of the 'congregation.' What if we expected pastors to live beyond their study rooms and stages? What kind of gospel would we then proclaim?

I submit that it would be entirely different, and it would be the gospel of Jesus rather than the gospel of the vision statement.

These places are not keeping people from getting into heaven, but I do believe these churches are helping people miss the reality of living into the kingdom.