Tired of the “church experience”
I just read this in an old comment on one of my posts:
I think the best thing that could happen in the Church is if the “leaders†had to sit for a good extended period of time among all the others in the pews. They would quickly see why so many Christians are tired of their Church experience.
What do you think?
Amen! I am very, very tired of our church meeting right now, but I don’t put much blame on the leaders–because I think they are at a loss for what do do.
For a long time now people have attended church for reasons other than the sustenance that the gathering of the saints can and should give them. Church meetings are something to do, they are a place to see your friends, they can sometimes edify, and attending can assuage that vague, residual guilt we often have about not doing our duty.
Such itch-scratching kept the pew-sitters coming, and the leaders focused increasingly on the part they liked best, namely preaching to a captive audience. But these days most of us get those particular itches scratched elsewhere, which leaves those of us in the pews asking ourselves: why are we sitting here listening to this guy when we could be doing something else?
Meanwhile, the leaders seem to instinctively rule out any alternatives that shift the focus off of them. I don’t blame them for this–after all, most of them were attracted to the work because it puts them in the limelight–and it’s unreasonable to expect changes from them that might endanger their livelihood monetarily or otherwise.
I think it would help in some churches. Other leaders enjoy sitting and listening to someone else preach. The pastor of the church we used to be a part of used to say that the church’s dirty little secret is that the preferred form of entertainment was preaching. I think he said that because he enjoyed listening to the preaching of others.