I have a feeling that we will hear this a lot or at least some variation of this question as we continue to get together.

Meaghan joined us tonight at the Book N Bean and we talked about Chris’ new scooter and then looked on ebay to see if any were going cheaply.  I found a matching guy/girl set of old school West German pedal start mopeds, but the guy wanted a heck of a lot more than I wanted to put into them.  We also looked at some dis-motivational pictures that made fun of those supposedly ‘inspiring’ pictures you see hanging in workplaces with a pithy phrase about courage or team-work.  Funny those hang in the worst places to work.

So Chris left to make it home before dark and Meaghan and I talked about school and all sorts of crap.  I mentioned this little subversive church thing we are doing and she was all about being on board.  Which is cool because I know there are people out there who are holding on to the ideas of Jesus by a string, but are so disillusioned by the idea of church and the constant bait and switch.

Ouch.  Bait and switch.  Not a nice term, but let’s be brutally honest here.  Where you read about the first church in the Greek Scriptures (I will not use the terms Old and New Testament) and you compare the stories there to what is going down on an average Sunday morning, there are few, if any, comparisions.  I see a lot of contrasts, but not a lot of comparisons.

Take this story for example:

I’m talking to my mom tonight and she tells me she runs into some old church acquaintances.  They start telling her about a family illness that might have deadly consequences.  My mom brings up the inevitable question of where they are attending church and their response is nothing new.  They have attended a few churches, ended up at a former pastor’s new church, have been basically back-burner-ed, in need of prayer, a little attention, and are ready to give up on church.  A short overview, to be sure, but I will follow up later.

Now I chalk this up to several things:

First, everyone comes to church hopeful and expectant.  Even if people won’t admit it, there is a basic need to be accepted and loved and the thought is, either conscious or otherwise, universal.  When you step into a church, generally you get those things in abundance.  You are a new customer shopping churches, of course someone is glad you are there and they are more than willing to help you try it on.  And if you keep coming back, people are even more excited to see you because you might stay.  People are happy, things are good, the music is entertaining, and the pastor funny, casually-dressed and almost approachable, hey this is pretty good!

Fast forward and its a few months or years later and the same routine has taken place countless times.  And your time at the church has gone one of two ways.  The church was a great fit, and you are involved, you have weekends off, so this fits your schedule, they seem to excuse the occasional absences for illnesses and vacation, and you have been given more ‘things to do’.  Because the church today works like Amway, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it.  For those people, this post is not going to make much sense.  But then again Jesus said he came for the sick…

Now what if don’t fit into that highly motivated, particular demographic?  What if you have to work on Sundays?  Or what if you aren’t a go-getter and perpetually happy and ‘glad someone came to church today?’  Or what if life has dealt you a crappy hand and you have lost a child and might lose another one?  Or you are a guy and wear dark eyeliner and really, really like the Cure?  Or, in other words, aren’t part of that perfect, upwardly mobile, young, culturally-relevant, affluent (or at least pretending to be) crowd?

Well, you know the bait and switch.

The scriptures and the first few weeks don’t match up with final product.

This is simply because the mainstream church has always been a business.  It is about market share, and you shouldn’t take it personally.

Why?

Because that isn’t the real church.  The real church is out here, among the millions of other real people who don’t fake happiness all the time, who tried to play the game and found it exhausting.  The real church is out here, and it is waiting for you because it needs you and what you have to offer.  And it wants to give you rest and hope and all those other things you have given up as gone.

That couple I mentioned, well yeah, they lost a child some time ago, and now they have another who might be taken from them early.  I look at my kids and if Ben died, you would probably never see the me you see now.  And then if Lizzie or the new baby might die soon, yeah, I’d want some prayer.  And yeah, I’d want someone to sit next to me and grieve and be anxious and let me vent or let me cry or at least notice me.  And if time and again I wasn’t noticed, yeah, I’d wonder if there was a god and I know I’d give up on these people playing church.

Because if that was the youth pastor or someone else important going through a rough time, people would be falling all over themselves to be seen helping and praying and all that stuff.  I know, I’ve seen it before.

Hum, reminds me of a verse about not letting anyone see your works and offerings…

Church isn’t a place you go or something you do.  It is us we are the church.  No one said it was going to be fun or easy or have great benefits, in fact, I do believe Jesus said quite the opposite.

And that is where the subversivechurch comes in, we are to wake people up who are playing church and offer them the chance to do and be more.  We will use art, protests, blogs, information, commentary, music, and any other means necessary to wake people up.  But more importantly, we will try our best to fix the wrongs done by other followers of Christ.

If this intrigues you, shoot me an email:

mike at subversivechurch dot com

-M