I've said it before and I'll probably say it again. Church is not an academic institution. Yet churches spend the vast majority of the time people give them in academic pursuits. I know because I'm as guilty as anyone else. Every summer I would take our youth on a mission trip. It was wonderful and powerful. It was faith in action. Lives were changed forever. And we did it one week out of every year. What was I thinking? The other 51 weeks of the year I fell into the trap that nearly every church falls into. I "taught" about Jesus. In my really edgy moments I "taught" others how to "teach" about Jesus. I confess my sin of making church as boring and irrelevant as anybody I'v ranted about on this blog.
When will we learn that people learn by doing. Jesus, himself, sent his followers out to do what they had seen him doing and when he physically removed himself from the scene his charge was to go and do. Yes, he said "teaching everything I have commanded you", but his commands were, follow me, love your enemy, do to others what you would have them do to you, wash one another's feet, serve your neighbor, and all sorts of actions. He taught with stories and actions that demonstrated truth. Then he might say a few words of clarification if the disciples seemed confused. There is a time of preparation for action but eventually there must be a time for action. Jesus prepared complete novices in just three years then set them loose on the world. In some denominations today a total of eight years of academic study is required before you can go out with their stamp of approval to lead the church. And, like Jesus, we send leaders out in droves to do exactly what we've taught them by example. Only our example is deeply flawed.
After four to eight years of academic study in Bible college and/or seminary church leaders do as we've been taught. We herd everyone into rooms and expound on dogma, doctrine and theology. In small groups and large we make faith mostly about right thinking and exhaustive knowledge-gathering. On rare occasions we venture outside our doors to rake a lawn or serve up a bowl of soup. We create "trips of a lifetime" inviting people to go somewhere else in the world for a week or two and have their lives transformed. And they are, by the way. But we rarely seize the opportunity that transformation provides once we get back home. We go back into our classrooms drilling truth, justice and the American way (as understood by scripture) into people's heads. Except what really gets into their heads is that we're boring, irrelevant and disconnected from the realities of their everyday life.
I met a young man who is passionate about sharing Jesus with children. He seems absolutely convinced that the way to do this is to herd them into rooms (attracting them to these rooms with basketball, games and music) and tell them the deep truths about Jesus. I shouldn't be surprised, he went to Bible college. There's a lot more I want to say about this, but I'll save it for another time. For now, I'll leave you with this thought...What if Christians gathered in church every Sunday just long enough to pick up rakes or shovels or food baskets and went out into the community to rake lawns or shovel snow or deliver food? What if we did this every single Sunday of the year except for maybe Christmas and Easter when we would have a celebration? What if we all came back from our Sunday service (takes on a different meaning doesn't it?) and got together in small groups to share what we saw God doing that day? How long would your church be an unknown entity in the community and irrelevant in people's lives if this is how you did church?
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