verse4today: "How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you. We have never even heard of another God like you." (II Samuel 7:22)
Posted on 2012-04-30 via Twitter
Last week I blogged on The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose. In this book Roose tells about his one-semester experiment as a Liberty University student. The book is filled with remarkable insights, including this one on the local church (page 232):
"If I had to guess, I'd say the meaning of church is changing for me. I used to define church as a series of events - the sermon, the worship music, the collection, the altar call. Now, when I think of church, I think of George, the elderly man in the choir who greets me with a "hello there, Mister Kevin" every week. I think of Mac, the sixty-five-year-old tenor who always updates me on his son and daughter - an engineer in Gary, Indiana, and a sales representative in Charlottesville. On Wednesday night, I think of Campus Church and the guys I sit with... instead of the laser light shows or the fog machines.
The benefit of this is obvious: it's much easier for me to enjoy church when I conceive of it as a gathering of people. I still don't agree with Dr. Falwell's sermons, and I still have serious problems with some of the doctrines being preached at these things, but I can appreciate the feeling of singing in a choir with three hundred other people. I can appreciate the comfort of having a stable, predictable period of diversion every week at exactly the same time, and I know why it's appealing to take part in a communal activity, to feel like I'm part of something bigger than myself."
After reading that, I am thinking some will take exception to words like "enjoy" or "comfort." Others might launch from this quote into a discussion about the proclaimed Word and how to process thoughts that contradict our personal convictions. But what caught my attention and encouraged my heart, is his affirmation that the church is not just a series of events (i.e., a liturgy) but a gathering of people. And for Roose, the relational component of the gathering trumps all others.
I am left wondering if Roose's opinion about the local church is typical of twenty-first century young adults in suburban America. I think I will leave that up to others to determine. But I will admit, as a pastor of a small congregation committed to authentic community, that I am encouraged by the thought that at least one individual finds it appealing to, not just attend a church service but, gather as a community and be part of something bigger than himself. And I can pray that this community would be for him, and for many others, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.