Thursday 16 September 2010

They're churches Jim... but not as we know them...

Just a quick note because a longer post is in the offing... but I've been struck recently by three completely different versions of 'church'... define it as you will... the building, the 'gathering', the act of worship that is Kingdom on Earth...


The first was made pretty clear at a wedding we attended recently... in this building:

Bigger than the local cathedral, it has polished marble floors in the lobby (which also has a reception desk), has an auditorium that will seat 1800 people, and a sound system that would compliment Wembley. Set in 12 acres... the cost, was initially £7 million... most from member donations. They have two services on a Sunday, each with 1000 in the congregation... services which - if personal experience is anything to go by - are largely oriented towards first-time attendees, and are pretty much front-led.

Shiny...

The second is from a recent series on Channel 4 - on the Amish; a technology shunning, fundamentalist, anti-confrontational, family oriented ensemble of some 40 different groups who are schism-ed by their adherence to an utterly bewildering set of more or less important rules. Most of the Amish don't have any church buildings... they have a community... and they don't really have a church service... they live their worship in life-as-community; in daily work, in daily family worship, and in community gatherings that happen every other week and that are led by members chosen by ballot... and appear to end up as an extended tea party that they call 'visiting'...

Humble...

The third is drawn from some reading that I've been doing on Friends, or Quakers, who don't have a 'church building' per se... more a 'meeting house'. And who's beliefs are diverse and individual. They don't have a led 'service'... more a gathering where people come together to sit in silence and enjoy individual communion with the divine... they are affiliated by a common commitment to particular actions (or testimonies)... and form committees and groups to achieve this. To the uninformed (me!) it looks like a social activism network that has a grounding in a private (and then corporate) spirituality...

Private...

In the face of this diversity I have many questions... I'm offended by some, attracted by others... and I'm worried by the integrity of all three - particularly if they are taken in opposition to each other...

Most of all, even as I'm fascinated by the differences and wonder if they are mostly cultural rather than irreconcilably spiritual... I struggle to work out how those of us who take a more liberal and lighthearted approach to difference fit within structures that appear so clearly defined. Is there an answer... or do personal relationships simply have to exist alongside potentially conflicting systematic boundaries and divisions...? Isn't tension inevitable? Why is that so within a body that should be defined by its unity?

And which one would Jesus go to... if any? Or would he go to all of them? Or none? Or would he invite people from all of them to join him and his family down the park to play frisbee?

And how would he do all of this in a way that was earth-shatteringly Divine... and that would outwork the Church as his bride...?

It just makes me realise that I'm such a beginner!

4 comments:

  1. Well if that's a short post it definitely makes me feel woefully inadequate about the length of some of mine! ;o)

    Jesus attended synagogue "as was his custom". So perhaps he would customarily attend all the three types you mention. But then that wouldn't leave much time for having meals with HMRC tax inspectors and call girls.

    Hmmm.

    I don't think I've begun. I think I've reversed from the start into the changing room.

    What was it the commentator said about FC Braga last night when thrashed by Arsenal? "They were lucky to get nil!"

    That's me. Lucky to get nil. But that's God's luck so it must count for a half time orange segment at least.

    Boom.

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  2. I watched that amish series too, it was fascinating. I spent half my time admiring the simplicity of their lives, and the other half wondering how all the things they were clearly good at weren't being used to serve the world.

    I don't know how church should be, but I know what I like, but should church be about what I like?

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  3. @ Pop... I know... I can't write a 'short note' to save my life... that's why my PhD took 5 years instead of 3. I wrote it at least twice over, and then had to cut out 40k words.

    @ Nick... What I wondered was, what would the world be like if all Christians stopped giving £7m to build palatial churches on the outskirts of a town, and instead invested all that time and effort into living in a way that was stubbornly different from the world around.

    More on this in the 'bigger' *groan* post to come.

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  4. @ Mome - big posts good, friend. Looking forward to the main course...

    I'm going to withhold further musings on this topic until I have read said main course... ;o)

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