The State of the Church

I went to church on Sunday, and from now on, I won’t be going back.

I was heading out the door on a normal Sunday morning, when I was disappointed to see my neighbors packing their car to take their two young boys to their Little League baseball game. After wondering why Little League baseball games are played on Sundays at all, I thought to myself, those boys need to be in church. But now, after seeing what “church” has become, I’m not so sure. My Sunday morning “experience” left me wondering, as a grown man, whether any church has anything I need.
Arriving at the church that Sunday morning, I parked next to a car whose owner appeared to be primarily interested in being publicly identifiable as a 49ers fan. I could not tell whether its owner had any other, more serious, convictions. I mean, I like football, and I like the 49ers, too, but I wouldn’t want to confuse anyone about my priorities. Anyway, as I proceeded in to the sanctuary–I mean, auditorium—I immediately noticed the countdown clock on the video screens indicating how long until “showtime”.
As if on cue, the house lights came down, the stage lights went up, and the show started with a “praise team”—an assortment of overgrown adolescents that resembled a third-rate rock-and-roll band, led by some guy wearing worn-out jeans with his shirt hanging out– “leading” the congregation on the path to meaningful worship. He was overweight and had forgotten to shave, but even so, he was dressed a little bit better than the guy sitting next to me, who had dragged himself to church in his finest pair of board shorts and flip-flops and a t-shirt advertising his favorite beer.
The so-called music leader screeched out-of-tune the lyrics to the so-called songs, while the lady in front of me plugged her ears, and while everyone else around me observed the performance in “worship”. It was evident that the “praise team” did not encourage singing along, because no member of the congregation could hear his own voice even if he had been able to decipher the melody, which the lead “singer” was improvising anyway, and whose lyrics were laced with sexual metaphor, embarrassing the adults in the room who could remember when the generally accepted code of church conduct was to steer clear of anything that might be construed as inappropriate or irreverent. The next song was even worse, a mashup of musical and lyrical banality that might have been awarded 3rd-place at a high-school talent show. But in this age of subjectivism, who am I to say what’s good or bad music, anyway?

Mercifully, the “music” portion ended, at which point the rest of the congregation began filing in to the auditorium. It occurred to me then that the main difference between most church music programs and a rock concert is that at a rock concert there’s good music. A lady holding three iced mochas that she’d just picked up in the lobby sat down next to me with her two kids who were busy with their video game devices, and she promptly spilled one of the drinks on the floor, and had to get up to go replace it, causing me to wonder how people slurping their cappuccino during a Sunday morning message might be considered an inducement to “worship”. I half-expected to see hot-dog and popcorn vendors working the aisles to assist me in my “worship experience”.
The “service” was interrupted to make announcements highlighting opportunities for “ministry” and christian “education” available to the churchgoers in the upcoming week, including godly time management, the story of you, how to love your work, a christian halloween celebration, dealing with discontentment, and biblical investment strategies. Wisely, they had waited to make these announcements until after the music portion was done, because less than half the congregation had arrived on time.
Hoping at last that something of value was about to be offered to the adults in the building who were serious about their Christianity, the “pastor” came out—a fifty-something fellow who looked like he’d overdosed on Grecian Formula and was dressed like he was the oldest guy in the youth group. I couldn’t help but think, you know, the local TV station won’t let a guy read the weather forecast without wearing a coat and tie, but this “pastor” wants me to sit and listen to him wearing an outfit that would disqualify him from a Dancing with the Stars audience?? If he doesn’t care enough to look like he takes himself seriously, why should I take him seriously? Why should anyone?
Today’s churches don’t even take their own denominational affiliation seriously. An affiliation says a lot about what the church believes, but evangelical churches long ago began dropping from their names the distinguishing features that had at one time suggested their reason for existence. Their primary intent now seems to be instead to make themselves indistinguishable from the world around them, being more interested in advertising on their marquee for Relaxed Coffeehouse Services!, or, Kick Back with Us on Sunday Mornings! For all a passerby knows, names like “Clovis Hills Church”, or “New Covenant Church”, or “The Bridge”, or “New Harvest Community Church”, or “People’s Church”, or “NorthPointe Church”, or “The Well”, or “North Park Community Church” could be Muslim churches. By contrast, think how difficult it isn’t to identify a Mormon Church, or a Jehovah’s Witnesses Church. Evangelical christians, though, have become so much of this world that they’re not visible in it, and especially not on Sunday nights, since nearly every evangelical church has discontinued its Sunday evening services. There’s Sunday Night Football, after all.
If a church is too embarassed about its denominational affiliation to announce it publicly, why should anyone be surprised that its congregation members are confused regarding what should distinguish them as christians? Pastors rarely preach on moral issues anymore, and never on political issues, as though freedom and civic behavior are topics unsuited to the pulpit. Neville Chamberlain himself could not be more proud of a group of leaders whose abdication of responsibility betrays an underlying conviction that if they remain silent about the government, the government will remain silent about them.
It seems that the evangelical church has adopted the secular world’s bad habits while ignoring its good ones–instead of observing how effectively the secular world wraps inane messages in attractive and sophisticated packaging, the evangelical church has watered down a powerful message and wrapped it in a medium that appeals almost exclusively to adolescents. I keep asking myself, Where are the grown-ups in the evangelical church? Where is the leadership? Where are the men?