More than soft seats and a drum set

Mr. Heresy, Leighton Tebay writes;

"I've realized that I can't go back. Everytime I try to go back, to jump back in to the establishment I find myself repulsed. I feel sick inside. 10 years ago I had a deep and passionate commitment to church and my local church. It's not like I didn't try, for years. The more I'm in the system the more I realize that this isn't what I signed up for. I spent 10 months reading scripture before I entered a church. I read enough to know that what I saw in the gospels is not what I saw on Sunday. Because of this I've never been satisifed. I don't expect church to be perfect, I just expect us to resemble Jesus and those who have been transformed in to his likeness. The most common forms of Christianity resemble Christ little on the outside and even less on the inside."

And that's why it's not about changing the style of the songs we sing, or adding drums and guitars to our worship services. It's not about adding small groups or self help sermons, or coffee times or childcare. (Although ALL those things are needed and are welcome additions!)

If we wanted to grow our church numbers, we would do many things. I often teased my church leaders we should offer free pizza and beer after the service and really see the thing take off. But it was never about those things.

It was, and is about a basic difference in how we view the world we live in. And it's a difference in how we view and obey the Word of God, and follow Jesus.

When we were involved in church-planting, I always died a bit inside when the new christians would meet up with older christians. The older christians would speak to them about "When you've been a christian for a while, you'll understand why we do things the way we do."

The new believers were seen as to idealistic, to shiny. "Let the sheen wear off, then they'll be just like us". Get them into a discipleship course that would have the basic effect of dulling their enthusiasm by teaching them how to "behave" like Christians. Help them discover their gift, train em a bit and slot them in their place. Then the church continues on, with enough people to turn the big wheels that need to be kept moving.

No, the real needs are deeper than soft seats and a drum set up front.

And yeah Leighton, I hear ya.

I don't expect the church to be perfect either, I've been around it to long. I just expect us to resemble Jesus as those who have been transformed in to his likeness. Is that to much to hope for?

Could we have a bit of authenticity around here please?