 |
||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||
|
When Christianity Becomes Churchianity June 16, 2008 By Kevin
Crispo I once took
my brother to an Apostolic church. Afterwards, my mother--who
comes from a Jewish family--questioned him about it. He said,
“The services are shouting matches. Sometimes the preacher wins.
Sometimes the congregation wins. And sometimes it's a tie: everyone
gets up and starts screaming and dancing around the building.” Although I
believe in shouting to God in worship (Psalm 47:1), my brother's
comments about that match--one in which the preacher pummeled
the opposition--led me to reflect on our church culture. Name That Tune Every assembly
of believers has its own culture. Each has its own acceptable
pattern of behavior and way of thinking. Just visit some Apostolic
churches in other countries and you'll soon realize that many
of our cherished practices are nothing more than Americanisms.
The question is this: How much of what we perceive as holy or
proper is shaped by Scripture, and how much is shaped by the Apostolic
culture of our locality? For instance,
some people think that sacred music shouldn't sound like secular
music. But that's not always been the case. In 1921, William E.
Booth-Clibborn wrote the lyrics to “Down From His Glory” using
the music from the Italian love song “O Sole Mio.” Now does anyone
complain about singing that hymn in church? Why not? Some of the
psalms have melody indicators that put new words to the popular
music of their day. For example, Psalm
22 is set to the tune of the “The
Doe of the Morning.” Psalm
56 gives new lyrics to “A Dove on
Distant Oaks.” (For others, see the headings to Psalm 45, 57-60,
69, 75, and 80.) So what makes music holy? Is it the melody or
is it the lyrics? Much of the
music on my iPod is classical. Why? I often feel the presence
of God when I listen to Bach, Corelli, and Vivaldi. Maybe you
listen to banjo-plucking tunes from Podunk, Tennessee. Does that
mean one of us is right and the other is weird? No. It means we're
different. Just because
we may not relish a particular style of music doesn't mean that
God can't use it. And just because we're not accustomed to a particular
style of church service doesn't mean that God can't use that,
either. Faith and Flexibility To define
what a proper church service should look like, we need a holistic
view of Christianity. Holistic Christianity is a concept that
states that we cannot divorce or compartmentalize the sacred from
the secular in our lives. In other words, we can't confine our
sacred life to a church building and our secular life to an office
cubicle--because all of our actions are interrelated. Everything
we do is ministry. All of life is an act of worship. The church
isn't a building; it's an assembly of Spirit-filled believers.
Although Scripture provides basic guidelines for worship services,
it never micromanages where an assembly can meet and what those
believers can do. Are we limiting
God with our limited view of how things ought to be? Think of
how the gospel was originally proclaimed. One of the most famous
sermons in the Bible took place without a building--the Sermon
on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Sometimes Jesus taught on a boat (e.g.,
Matthew 13:1-52). And the early church met in their homes (e.g.,
Colossians 4:15). They did a lot of things that would be considered
strange by our standards. Maybe that's why we have different results. Speaking of
atypical services, I attend a friendship group that meets at Starbucks.
We've been studying the Gospel of Mark, verse by verse, for the
last eight months. I've learned much from our Bible studies and
my group makes me feel like I'm part of a family. Sometimes the
people that work at Starbucks ask us to pray for them. I know
that friendship groups aren't for everyone, but the gospel is. Perhaps we
should be more open to different ways of having church services.
The message of salvation isn't flexible, but its presentation
is. Paul said,
“I have become all things to all men so that by all possible
means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel,
that I may share in its blessings” (I Corinthians 9:22-23,
NIV). Paul put the ministry of the gospel above his personal preferences.
He adapted his presentation of Scripture to the customs and needs
of his audience. Are we that flexible? Or has our
Christianity become Churchianity? © 2008, Kevin
Crispo ---------- Kevin Crispo lives near St. Louis and loves God and cappuccino. |
|||||||||
