This morning was interesting. We had some trouble with Facebook Live, but our YouTube stream worked well & our content got out there eventually. (Apparently several folks struggled with Facebook Live, as their servers were on the receiving end of a digital Christian crusade.)
Unexpectedly, I learned a lot about myself this morning. I learned how much the instant gratification of a Sunday morning drives me. Did people like the music? Was the sermon good? Were there a lot of people there? I wonder if so and so will come back? I always say we’re playing the long game, and I’ve transitioned us to a ministry paradigm that reflects such a mindset. But I learned today how poorly I live up to that confession. The performance itself has just flat-out mattered too much, even for those of us who say its not about the performance! We chose not to perform this morning, and I felt the withdrawals.
I’ve long sensed a paradox at the heart of our approach to Sunday mornings. We make them both too weighty, yet not weighty enough. We are far too willing to miss gathering with the church, but we also expect the act of gathering to do more than it’s intended to do. Christian commitment is more than a Sunday commitment, but it is not less than a Sunday commitment. I even recognized in myself a tendency to outsource spiritual conversations with Holly to… the Sunday morning version of myself. It’s easier to drive to the theater, get on the stage, and hide behind the relative anonymity I find behind a pulpit. I can’t be the only one who finds it easier to worship God in the church house than my own house. This does not have to be the case.
Before us now is an opportunity to re-orient our Sundays in the context of our every days – to focus on underlying discipleship patterns that give rise to a healthier church (with “better” gatherings when they resume, too!). We get to put our money where our mouth is and take the spotlight off the stage. We don’t want to further entrench the posture of watching as our primary posture of worship. We’re just going to worship where we are with the people God has placed around us. We’re supplementing these household worship gatherings with worship guides, simple Bible interpretation tools, RezKids material, and some preaching/teaching. I’m okay with watching, as long as it has an eye toward being and doing.
I don’t know if we had a “good” morning or not. But we’re going to do all we can to build the saints up in love and equip them to walk with God in the every day stuff of life. I don’t have much instant gratification today. But I’m learning to believe that’s a good thing. The best things in life take some time to grow. And those are the sorts of things that should drive us.
May we decrease that He may increase.
MB
***Disclaimer: I pastor Resurrection. That’s about it. I have to have a pulse for where we are, and I have to lead us faithfully where God is calling. You or your pastor will likely reach different conclusions, and that is perfectly logical. I’m not interested in telling other people how to walk through this. I write primarily for our members & my friends still making sense of Christianity.
