(Please check this week’s Prayer Points)
I did two of my favourite things today – went to a church gathering and watched a football match. My engagement with both is the set-up for a look at something rather important to how I currently view life.
I’m a bit concerned (No. 15 of 101 Understatements of the Century) that if I mentioned church, football, participating and observing it would be easy for people to connect observing to church and participating to football.
Football – An Observational Deal Gone All Participatory
With football even if you’re not playing your level of enthusiasm and fanaticism for it sees you watching the games and getting involved almost as thought you’re kicking every pass and heading every cross.
The level of participation can be so intoxicating and enthralling that it is no surprise that some view it as a religion in itself. One of those who view it that way would be me and I should know because it is something I worshipped before.
When the team is up, you are up, when the team is down, you are down. Every decision affects your well-being and your life is measured by your blinkered opinion on the state of play. Being a part means attending the matches, getting the material involved – the replica shirt – indeed the whole replica kit, the season ticket, making it to away matches, club magazine, fanzines, web forums and blogs – the whole deal. Your children are named after the key players – girls as well as boys. The team is tattooed over your body. Your ashes will be scattered in the ground.
Can’t get much more participatory than that even if you owned the club.
Yet for me – in as much as I’m a supporter of football and love the game and in as much as I take interest in it and engage in good natured banter about it, I’m happy merely being an observer on the game. Where once my mood would descend at the thought of my beloved Liverpool losing a match, I can enjoy watching them play their biggest rivals Manchester United and although they lose and didn’t particularly look like scoring, it’s no skin off my nose. I can appreciate the game from an observational position and realise that in as much as it is a religion to many – it’s not that to me at all. It’s not worth it.
Church – A Participatory Deal Gone All Observational
The church, however, is another deal. I see only too many opportunities where church is something to be observed.
You come into a church service and work out what’s expected of you, to discover you can get by with turning up to most of the services and little beyond that. Then when it comes to the nature of the services, there may be a requirement to engage with the singing bit, but other than that it’s an observer’s sport. In fact even with the singing bit, that can be the greatest part of the observer’s sport – what song are we singing – slow or fast? Slow played in a fast pace? Fast played in a slow pace? Look at the expressions on the people’s faces – how many mean what they’re singing? How many are going through the motions?
The format of many services sees the pinnacle as the sermon or main address and if anything screams observational than it is the audience and the sermon. For anything from 15 or 20 minutes to an hour or two the silent majority take a seat back to hear what God has told the professional one. It is inspirational or boring. It is motivating or mundane. Either way, I observe, I critique and that’s about it.
Yeah there can be other outlets of participation like the various ministries and projects, there may be the occasional prayer meeting (which we’ve already ascertained is not exactly the crowd-puller) or bible study. Even there the level of participation can be somewhat controlled beforehand and it becomes a little political game of who can climb the ladder and get control – youth leader, Sunday School teacher, moderator, guest preacher and then the big one The Pastor who gets to inspire/bore the observers most weeks of the year.
Out of interest, I wonder if this was how the early church expressed itself? Out of interest, I wonder if the example and lifestyle of Jesus would naturally lead to that way of being church? Just out of interest.
The Dryden Church Community Journey So Far …
It is fascinating for me and for us as a family steadily plugging into a new expression of church and figuring out how we participate. We are not observers when it comes to church – the whole nature of church, as my understanding of scripture currently has it, means there’s no room for observers. No room and no time. There are good works to be done for which we need to be stirred, by each other to get on with them. There are songs, teachings, words of wisdom, insights and other contributions that each member of the Body of Christ has to give for the building of each member of the Body.
That means in as much as it’s important to observe the life of others … that observation is to be done to inform our participation. Anything else really isn’t quite church … it’s more like watching a football match.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 