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I stopped by the produce aisle at the grocery store this afternoon because I needed a green pepper. The store had 54 green peppers in the display. I know the number is 54 because I handled or turned over half of them and looked over all the rest.
But 20 minutes later when I left the store and walked home, I still didn't have a green pepper. Why not?
Without any doubt, it was the worst produce I'd ever seen: every pepper was either covered with a white dust that looked like dandruff (but was probably water mold), splotched with orange and brown patches that looked like bruises (but was probably bacteria) or had visible holes ... like bugs had bored their way inside.
I wanted to find a manager and ask him or her if they really expected customers to pay $2.99 a pound for produce that looked, in all seriousness, like it was unfit to eat. But I didn't.
I've become pragmatic in my old age and realize it doesn't matter if I was trying to be helpful: without the authority to start firing people on the spot, chances are the manager would just look at me and smirk, because he or she couldn't care less what I had to say.
Not because I'm just a customer, but because I'm just another customer, you see, and there'll be a hundred more like me walking through the store before closing time, and the only thing that makes me different is that none of them will gripe about the green peppers.
It's just a fact: the manager knows he's not going to lose his job and the chain's not going to go out of business because Joe Hall thinks their green peppers belong in the dumpster behind the store.
Without any doubt, it was the worst produce I'd ever seen: every pepper was either covered with a white dust that looked like dandruff (but was probably water mold), splotched with orange and brown patches that looked like bruises (but was probably bacteria) or had visible holes ... like bugs had bored their way inside.
I wanted to find a manager and ask him or her if they really expected customers to pay $2.99 a pound for produce that looked, in all seriousness, like it was unfit to eat. But I didn't.
I've become pragmatic in my old age and realize it doesn't matter if I was trying to be helpful: without the authority to start firing people on the spot, chances are the manager would just look at me and smirk, because he or she couldn't care less what I had to say.
Not because I'm just a customer, but because I'm just another customer, you see, and there'll be a hundred more like me walking through the store before closing time, and the only thing that makes me different is that none of them will gripe about the green peppers.
It's just a fact: the manager knows he's not going to lose his job and the chain's not going to go out of business because Joe Hall thinks their green peppers belong in the dumpster behind the store.
Now will that be paper, or plastic?
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Walking back to my boat, green peppers covered with mold, bacteria and bugs got me thinking about churches.
Walking back to my boat, green peppers covered with mold, bacteria and bugs got me thinking about churches.
And how, with everything the church has to offer out in the open and on display to everyone who walks through the door, the service so often becomes a disservice.
Good thing visitors can't fire church staff on the spot, right?
Amen.
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Ever arrived 20 minutes early to visit a new church, glanced inside at the half-filled pews and then had an usher offer to help you find a seat?
Good thing visitors can't fire church staff on the spot, right?
Amen.
--
Ever arrived 20 minutes early to visit a new church, glanced inside at the half-filled pews and then had an usher offer to help you find a seat?
I have and frankly, I never liked anybody telling me where to sit. But it could be that's one of my quirks and one of the church's ways of welcoming strangers into the sanctuary and helping visitors feel less awkward. And that's awesome.
It just never feels that way.
Instead it feels like the ushers have super secret special instructions, and their Job Priority Number One is wrangling visitors away from the pews where the regulars sit. Like Brother So-and-So.
See, you've got to understand Brother So-and-So's family bought the wood for that pew from Pharaoh himself, and Moses helped build it with his own hands. For the past 208,000 weeks since then somebody from Brother So-and-So's family has filled that pew every Sunday, and there's a gold pin waiting if Brother So-and-So can hold on and make it 210,000 Straight Sundays in a row.
So don't sit there, let's go see what's in the balcony instead. Oh, and next Sunday please comb your hair, get a coat and tie and wear some different shoes. If you wanna sit with the regular folks, that is.
Then again, that's probably just me. ;-)
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I pretty much had to be dragged to church after hitting my teens, and soon as I left home for college I stopped going completely. I moved to Colorado after graduating and although a Baptist church just 4 blocks from my apartment I only went there one time, for Easter, because my mother asked me to.
Then in 2003 I became a member of a church that changed everything, and I mean everything literally and in the literal sense.
Instead of going once every 200 Sundays, I suddenly found myself wishing they had services every day of the week. No kidding, I dreaded 7:30pm on Sunday nights because it meant having to wait a whole week for Sunday morning to roll around again.
Wow, I wondered. Have I really changed that much that fast? What happened?
Was there that much difference in this church's green peppers? Or was the difference that at this church, "customers" really mattered, or that service was this church's top priority?
Was there that much difference in this church's green peppers? Or was the difference that at this church, "customers" really mattered, or that service was this church's top priority?
Hmmm.
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Church has too often become focused on prioritizing its members and on glorifying each other in death.
Instead of prioritizing and preaching the gospel, praising God for what He's done by forgiving our sins and offering us eternal life.
Instead of prioritizing and preaching the gospel, praising God for what He's done by forgiving our sins and offering us eternal life.
Uh oh, I'm not sure John 3:16-17 will fit on one stained glass window. So put Brother So-and-So's name there instead.
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Don't smirk at what I'm about to say, because I'm going to say it anyway and your smirking won't change what I've said.
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Don't smirk at what I'm about to say, because I'm going to say it anyway and your smirking won't change what I've said.
If you're already smirking, could be that's because you're reading this like I'm just another customer, right? And there's thousands more people just like I was waiting to walk through your church's door. Right?
Or maybe they already walked through your door ... and have no intention of coming back:
If you've ever wondered why your church's membership has been stagnant or been falling away for the past 15 years, pick a name at random from the newspaper obituaries on Monday morning, drive to the listed church and attend that person's memorial service.
Chances are you'll be more welcomed, thanked by more people for coming, feel more involved and attentive during the service ... and most important, you'll hear a more powerful, relevant and memorable message than you will by picking a church at random from your city's phone book and attending its services every Sunday for the rest of the year.
Why have churches come to glorify death, instead of preaching the gospel and Christ's message of eternal life?
The answer explains why 60% of Americans won't be in church tomorrow. And why most of that 60% will wait until they're dead to show up for the first time.
The answer explains why 60% of Americans won't be in church tomorrow. And why most of that 60% will wait until they're dead to show up for the first time.
As church customers in death, chances are that the funeral services will be solemn, reverent and done exactly the right way, with the men wearing ties and perfectly combed hair and the ladies in their best Sunday dresses and shoes. Because that's what church means and how service should be and what church is all about.
At least, some churches think so.
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
- Ephesians 5:19-21
We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ
- 2 Thessalonians 1:12
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves
- Colossians 1:11-13
