I more often than not agree with Matt Walsh's blog posts, but there are those times I definitely don't. His latest blog would be one of those "don'ts" for me.
To me, this blog came across as just another "curse-those-evil-contemporary-churches-that-are-to-blame-for-everything-bad" post. Maybe it's just his style of writing that got the better of him this time? Or maybe that really is how he would sum it up?
I mean, he does say, "I recently attended a service that might help solve the riddle of the fantastic decline of American Christianity..." as well as, "And this is the problem with Christianity in this country. Not just inside our church buildings, but everywhere." And more bluntly, "The light of the Faith grows dimmer in this culture because of that church service I attended. Not specifically that one, but that kind of service. And not just that kind of service, but that kind of Christianity, generally." "If we want to understand why Christianity is not out winning souls and conquering the culture, look there."
Well, I guess I didn't misunderstand him then.
This "kind of service" Matt talks about was so horrible because:
1- it was "relaxed"
2- it was "convenient"
3- it was "comfortable"
4- "the choir members dressed in shorts and flip flops"
5- "there were a bunch of acoustic guitars and drums and tambourines and a keyboard."
6- "Before the service/concert began, some guy came out to rev up the crowd."
7- it was noisy and had sounds and lights.
8- there was a "jam band for Jesus, or whatever it was" who played a song that wasn't traditional.
9- the pastor used a lot of trendy quips/metaphors/etc.
10- the specific words “truth,” “sacred,” “reverence,” “sin,” “hell,” “virtue,” “obedience,” and “duty” were not used in the sermon; but the words "friend" "help" and "tolerance" were used. "Gospel" was only used maybe only once (apparently Matt's counting abilities were hard to keep up with with all the list-making of words).
11- There wasn't "any semblance of an insight, a challenge, a truth, a call to action, or a point", according to Matt.
12- There were empty seats and disinterested yawns from the attendees.
That folks, that is the list as Matt himself says, of this church service, that apparently with one visit and this list, has made Matt discover the secret to why Christianity in America is dying.
Whoa, whoa, whoa... let's back this truck up, shall we?
The only things on this list I see as potential red flags are 10 and 11. And quite frankly, I'd have to hear more than one sermon from this one pastor to know if he really was as shallow as I thought. I'd also be a little hesitant to know if Matt was so totally closed-minded from the open-toed shoes that maybe this sermon wasn't as awful as he thought?
In the blog, Matt talks about how often Christians are accepting homosexuality and abortion- I TOTALLY agree that this is a problem and this is wrong. But that wasn't what happened in this God-forsaken church service. Matt doesn't say, "Wow I went to this church service that promoted abortion and accepted homosexuality. This is what's wrong with Christianity today." He talks later about the dangers of the prosperity gospel and not believing in hell. But he doesn't even say, "This church service taught there is no hell. This church preaches the prosperity gospel." No, he doesn't say that.
It's guitars.
It's flip-flops.
It's lights.
It's STYLE.
Look through that list again and see how much of it is style. How much is preference. How much is taste.
Obviously Matt has a bias against contemporary-styled services, and I get it.
I do.
Because I struggle with the same feeling of bias against conservatively-styled services.
I've seen the ugly side of suits. I've experienced the hypocrisy of hymn-sings. I know the terror of tradition.
Don't think I don't understand bias. When I visit a church that's traditional, that has hymn books and dress codes and and organs, I have to check my own prejudice. Because I know those things don't equal hypocrisy, even if in my past they often have. I know those things don't equal holier-than-though, even if I've seen that tendency. I know that suits don't always mean secrets and dresses don't always mean proud and rules don't always mean legalism.
Even if that's the baggage I tend to carry.
I put the baggage down, and open up my mind, and work to put aside my bias, and I say to myself "This style maybe isn't for me, and yes there are hypocrites out there, but maybe this is sincere and this is worship too and I'm so glad we all worship differently and give our God glory through our eclecticism."
Matt couldn't put his baggage down. He saw guitars and his mind went to abortion. He saw flip-flops and thought prosperity gospel. The sermon was lacking in his mind, so he assumed shallow. No benefit of a doubt. No give it another chance. No grace.
He did worse than this though.
He wrote about it. He publicly took his baggage and bias and handed out free samples to countless readers he has.
Matt even decides to sit in the judgment seat itself, saying "And what happens when you don’t factor these Convenientists — members of the Church of Convenience, proponents of Convenientism — into the equation at all? Are we still at 70 percent? Not hardly. What’s the real number? Forty percent? Thirty? Ten?" (These Convenientism followers are apparently anyone from someone who wears shorts to church to baby murderers, mind you). I think this part of Matt's blog angered me and hurt me the most. So we are to ponder who may not really make it into the Kingdom? And Matt thinks he can figure that out? Let me tell you, I look at the guy who wears a suit every week and goes through every motion perfectly and can be tempted to wonder the same thing. But I stop my mind from going there, from pretending to judge someone's soul and assume to know what's really going on because of my prejudice. Yeah, 70% Christian isn't really an accurate number; but we don't know that because someone's wearing different clothes than we like or worshiping with different music than we'd prefer. We know that because Scripture tells us that many call him Lord but don't truly know our Father (Matt. 7:21-23). Only God knows who really knows His name and who's simply calling him Lord. Let's let Him alone decide who that is.
He makes another assumptive and judgmental comment when he says about the worship leader, "I got the impression that he was fishing for applause, not worshiping the Lord of the Universe." Matt, I sure hope you went and talked to this guy if you have such a concern, as is the biblical principle (Matt. 18:15); because for you to have that kind of thought obviously showed your concern over his heart condition. That concern better have led you to a one on one conversation with the man. Writing that for the whole world to see is the type of gossip and criticism that we definitely do NOT need in the church today. I know a lot of worship singers/leaders Matt would probably say the same type of comment about, and let me tell you, I know first-hand how untrue it would be. Maybe he really was worshiping the Lord of the Universe. How dare we judge that.
Our traditional, American church is great. It's a wonderful option. But guess what it isn't: the standard. It's not the standard of church; it's not the standard of Christianity. It's not what was in the New Testament and it's not what's in most of the world today. Let's get out of our bubble and realize this. Let's stop pointing our fingers at other churches and realize the incredible danger that kind of disunity is for Kingdom work. Yes, let's hold to our Truths- I totally agree with Matt on that. Let's hold to our doctrine, hold to our depth, not compromising the core issues. Let's resist the Joel Osteens and the Joyce Meyers and anyone else who spreads heresy. But different styles does not equal heresy.
And comfortable does not equal pro-abortion and contemporary does not equal pro-gay-marriage. How offensive of an equation.
A couple weeks ago, my church (which I adore; it's SO Christ-centered, gospel-focused, and deep in doctrine and discipleship) had an outdoor service with 14 baptisms. Pretty much everyone was in shorts and flip-flops. There were guitars, drums, a keyboard, etc. It was relaxed. It was comfortable. It was convenient. It was noisy. It was jammed-up. Matt would have decided we were all pro-abortion and support gay-marriage.
That makes me sick, because that is so far from the truth.
Of the baptisms, several were women from a local recovery ministry our church works with. These women announced how long they'd been clean, explained their salvation story, and we all celebrated the power of the cross and the chains that Jesus breaks. When the women gave their testimonies, the rest of the women with them in the crowd cheered LOUDLY and danced and cried. It was beautiful. Far from traditional.
Matt wants us to be quieter? The leaders shouldn't rev-up the crowd? But he also talks about how exciting our beliefs are? Exactly! It is exciting! Hence the cheering!! Hence the applause! Hence the loud music! Sure, maybe some churches are doing those things for show, doing them to get attention, doing them for the wrong reasons. WE CAN'T JUDGE THAT. Because maybe they're NOT. Maybe they're just passionate about Jesus and serious about their faith and it looks DIFFERENT in different people!
We are so petrified of compromise that we are petrified of being different.
It is a SHAME that so many "Christians" have claimed the prosperity gospel; that they would dare support abortion; that they are pro-gay-marriage. I get it! That's scary! But let's not make that more than it is!
Matt says church shouldn't be comfortable. Well, wasn't he uncomfortable at that church service he went to? Don't shorts, flips-flops, guitars, make him uncomfortable? C'mon. What are we really saying here?
It's okay Matt doesn't like that style of church- that kind of dress from leaders- those kinds of instruments. BUT LEAVE IT AT THAT, MATT. Ok, it's not for you! Fine! It IS for someone else! And that's okay! That doesn't equal compromise! Plently of conservative churches are full of fluff too! We can't judge these things so simply!
Um, and empty seats and disinterested yawns? That's one of the bad things at this church? We shouldn't be too cool and fun and interesting, but we can't be boring either? What is is then? I mean, empty seats and yawns describes a lot (all??) of auditoriums of all kinds. We don't base our worship and preaching on how people will react though, right? Right??
So I guess the contemporary church just can't win. At least it can't win with people like Matt. We're too cool, but too boring, too this, too that. And so Satan has distracted us from what really matters and it's no longer Kingdom work and there's no unity and what gospel? And we're pretty much fighting over carpet color again.
I guess according to Matt church should be uptight; inconvenient; uncomfortable; have a dress-code for the choir; have no instruments; have leaders that don't make the crowd feel excited to be there; shouldn't be noisy or have lots of lights; the pastor shouldn't make jokes or current references...
Hmm... sounds to me like that could cause a decline of Christianity in America.
"Oh, cmon... you know what he really means", you're thinking. Yes, I do. Do you?
Tomorrow a lot of us, as we are the Church, are going to our church buildings. "There are still plenty of Christians who desire the true faith," Matt says. Yes, there are. And as we desire that, we will find ourselves tomorrow seeking and following in that faith, and we will land in different places. Some will land in churches as casual and contemporary as the one Matt visited. Some will land in ones as traditional and conservative as the one he hails. I will land at one that's in the middle of the two ends of the spectrum. And in our different places, we can all do just what Matt desires: praise the Rock; be trained for war; change our behavior.
Sure, sadly there will be some in casual clothes sitting in casual churches trying to have a casual faith; there will be some dressed up in "church clothes" and holding hymnals who are full of hypocrisy.
But there will be those in casual clothes in casual churches who are dead serious about their faith. There will be those who dress up because that's how they want to show God respect.
And so let's not worry about "them". Let's worry about the true false teachers. Let's worry about the real Enemy. But most of all, let's worry about our own selves.
No comments:
Post a Comment