Over the last couple of months I've started listening to Tony Campolo's podcast, 'Accross the Pond'. Each week he works through a current issue in the media and discusses it from a Christian point of view. He made an interesting point a few weeks ago when discussing the Media's influence on young people.When a 4 year old wakes up in the morning the first thing they may tune into is Sesame Street. On the surface the show is great. It introduces them to letters and numbers in a fun and accessible way. Rather than the letter 'A' simply being written on a chalk board, it has a little song and dance to go along with it. 'A' may even have the enormous honour of appearing alongside child royalty such as the Cookie Monster or Elmo (who in my opinion requires far too much tickling to maintain safe boundaries in youth work).
Now 'A' has as much right to a song and dance as any other letter, but what happens when the observer (your son, daughter, niece or nephew) turns 5 and heads to school? The letters and numbers no longer dance, the animals no longer talk, and one must face the stark reality that Elmo has a hand up his ass! Campolo argues that because young people are raised with an understanding of the alphabet soaked in stimuli and sensory bombardment, they struggle to engage with the actual reality of the alphabet. In other words, anything outside television now appears boring.
It's an interesting idea which I'm still wrestling with. Immediately I start to think about one of the highlights of the Soul Survivor New South Wales conference I was at in Sydney a couple of weeks ago. Mike Pilavachi (a visiting speaker from the UK) made a fantastic call on the last night of the festival:
"I don't care for big shows, big sounds, and big lights. If God doesn't show up at one of our meetings we should be saying 'That was a crap meeting!'" (paraphrased)
What a beautiful way of putting it. It gets me thinking, perhaps often our relationship with God is somewhat similar to Sesame Street's relationship with the letter A. The letter is the not the way the medium of television needs it to be, so they sex it up! The letter A doesn't make you wanna dance, so they put a soundtrack to it. It seems to me much the same as some of the ways we do services today.
I would argue that there is a fear in some faith communities that God may not turn up the way we want him to. He may not be able to be heard, felt, smelt or seen, so we create a sensory experience just in case. Could it be that our extravagantly put together services are merely a reflection of a lack of faith that God will move in a Godly manner, not necessarily the in the way we desire him to. How many pastors out there are actually content to have what appears to be a 'crap service' every now and then? Where maybe God doesn't show himself the way we understand him, but still ministers to our hearts at a level our minds just can't understand?
I believe that God will often move in ways we can experience tangibly. I am not denying the importance of God moving through understandable feelings or a sounds. But can we accept God for who he is? Is God still God to us when we strip away the packaging? Nearly every experience we have in life is mediated by someone. The information is passed-on, repackaged, and rejigged to suit our circumstances.
Are we happy with a second-hand saviour?
2 comments:
Good article bro. I especially identify with the fact that some churches have unfortunately made church far too consumer friendly. Every Christian ought to know the difference between the true Holy Spirit and the human embellishments, and being at peace with the often silent God.
I have a slight problem with this quote:
"I don't care for big shows, big sounds, and big lights. If God doesn't show up at one of our meetings we should be saying 'That was a crap meeting!'"
First of all Biblically God is always there. We must come to him, not wait for him to "show up". Also, is a church meeting something that needs to be critiqued in the manner of bad or good, enjoyable or not enjoyable? This kind of idea lends itself to consumer culture too in my opinion. What was Mike trying to say here? In this whole "God showing up" thing, was he referring to the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit? What if no one feels the Holy Spirit? Would it be classified as a "crap meeting"? I do not know, as I have never met the guy.
"First of all Biblically God is always there. We must come to him, not wait for him to "show up"."
Hear hear. We don't come to church to expericen God's presence, we should be doing that wherever and whenever we can. Church meetigns are about a venue for connecting with each other, and for corporate communuication to take place between believers.
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