Yesterday I read an article on
RelevantMagazine.com called The Most Damaging Attitude in Churches with
the subtitle “Why subtle cynicism doesn’t look like Jesus.” What great article!
After all the spiritual memoir I
am publishing soon could be described as a journey through the depths of
cynicism to get back to church. In fact I still consider myself a recovering
cynic. It took me a long time to see how cynicism had slowly corroded away my
ability to see what was good in the church.
Almost immediately after reading the article
though I was disappointed to see a blog post by Don Miller on twitter called I don’t Worship God by Singing. In the
post he describes reasons why he doesn’t go to church. Twitter and Facebook
exploded with harsh responses to Miller’s post.
Now I love Miller’s works. I have read them all.
Blue Like Jazz is one of my all time favorite memoirs, and at times I have
idolized his talents. Even after reading his post I didn’t get the sense that
Miller had set out to harm the church, and he says as much in a rebuttal post he published today. But
there was a lot of subtle cynicism underlying his reasons for not going to
church. And like it or not when that cynicism comes from someone of his status
in American Christianity it feeds damaging attitudes toward the church.
I want to identify some of those areas of subtle
cynicism in his post. Not so I can make Miller out to be heretic who needs to
be burned at the social media stake. But because at times I have identified
with his reasons and feelings, and have since then come to the conclusion that
I was missing out on the type of life God intended for me to live.
“I Don’t Worship God by Singing. I Connect With
Him Elsewhere.” The truth is I don’t always
connect to God well through music either. I can relate to the feeling. I would
prefer more poetry and scripture reading. One of the ways I connect best with
God is a quite walk in the woods. Don is right we don’t all connect well
through music. But why is music the dominant form of worship in American
churches? Because it has proved well to connect people in Corporate worship.
Yes I connect best by walking alone in the woods because I’m an introvert, but
there is something much more beautiful that happens when I worship God in a
shared experience with his church.
Not everyone likes to hear a lecture in an auditorium. Even the name of the room suggests disengagement with audit as its root word. But let’s be honest if all you do is sneak in and out the back door to hear one guy do all the talking you are not going to grow much from the experience. You may leave temporarily jacked up on Jesus, but there will not much life change. You may as well stay home and watch a good TED talk. Any decent pastor will tell you that you will not get everything you need from him or her. But that doesn’t discredit the benefits of a sermon. Sermons are meant to be starting points, not just inspirational nuggets to get you by until next week. So before you let cynicism in make sure you are doing your part. Talk to other people about what you heard, process it, and try to live it with other people trying to do the same.
“I connect to God better through work than
church.” I connect through God through work too. I
love work probably more than I should. Sometimes I even find community there.
In fact sometimes as the boss I even try to be intentional about the type of
community I create at work. But no matter how hard I try work will never
replace the church, because the church is a community with greater intention
than I could ever have on my on.
In Don’s rebuttal he says, ”The point is this:
God has no problem with you having pleasure enjoying Him, and when we don’t
through a specific methodology. He has no problem with us switching thing
around so we do. He’s not calling us to be sanctified through dutiful
boredom.” I have an attention deficit. I get easily distracted. If
it is really that big of a problem find or create a space for the community of
God that makes room for varying expressions of faith. Humans are designed to participate
in spiritual acts in a material way together, so find those people and be the
church together.
Here is the last piece of subtle cynicism I want
to take a look at.
“Most of the influential Christians leaders I
know (who are not pastors) do not attend church.” It
doesn’t matter that this sentence was prefaced with “I not saying people don’t
need to go to church.” In fact it is worse, because it is prefaced. It provides
the sense that the Christian elites have somehow managed supersede the need for
the intentional community that is the Bride of Christ. More than any other sin
I am most often accused of arrogance, so through self-reflection I have come to
better recognize it. In his writing Miller has always come across to me as a
humble guy, but statement was a poor line to choose for his opening paragraph
in a rebuttal.
I have noticed in my own life that the problem
with cynicism, regardless how subtle, is that it is selfish. It makes
everything about how this works best for me. It has a way of holding ideals
over our relationships with God and people.
Christ’s bride is beautiful. Let’s present her
as such.
Check out my upcoming book at www.adhogan.com
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