Something Good at the Ooze

As my regular readers will know, I don't generally find much over at the Ooze that I'm very fond of. [This old post illustrates that point, in case you're curious.]

But even though it routinely annoys me, I still find myself reading things over there now and again. And today I stumbled across an article that I actually found very good. The link is here, but I'm also going to quote from it extensively on the next page...

If you've followed the link and read the article, great. If not, it's entitled What's Wrong with Church?, and it expresses the great (and painful) difference one man felt between his home church services and those of a Mexican church he visited while on a short trip. His critique is, unlike so much at the Ooze, fairly balanced. He points out, for example, that those in the emerging camp spend a lot of time arguing about what "being saved" is or isn't. Meanwhile, the Mexican church is just working on Go-ing and Make-ing Disciples. Anyway, on to the details:

Our culture, especially twenty-somethings, esteems individualism far too much. Whether we can afford it or not, many of us live on our own. Those of us who are Christians believe in biblical principles, but almost equally so, we believe in our independence. Private living. Private worship. Private faith.

Excellent point! My cross-cultural studies have driven this point home for me. Sadly, we Americans can't see that we have a cultural bias toward Individualism. We look at more collective cultures and mock them as "antiquated" or "backward". Then we look at the cultural context of the New Testament... very collective, very NOT individualistic. Our American "rugged individualism" is a HUGE obstacle toward authentic Christian community. And it's so ingrained in all of us that we have to consciously fight the urge to fight for "our rights". I do. If you're honest, you'll admit that you do, too. But if we want real community, we MUST fight this tendency.

In Mexico, by the time the preacher went up to preach, we were all sweaty and disgusting and didn’t realize that an hour of the service had already passed. The sermon did not have three points; there was no Powerpoint or fill-in-the-blank bulletin; and it did not stay in the 30-40 minute window. It was long, passionate, and sloppy. And ten people got saved.

The Mexican culture is WAY more collective than ours, so it's no wonder they seem to routinely have better Christian community. What's remarkable about this quote, though, is the author - an Individualist American! - was able to enter into the community whole-heartedly. He was outside of his American context, and was able to adapt to the culture around him for the purpose of community and corporate worship. But to be honest, this isn't unheard of. Lots of folk go to another country for a short-term missions trip and come back with idyllic visions and memories than wouldn't necessarily stick if they were in the country longer. But then...

It was a breath of fresh air to visit the Hispanic service at my church a few weekends later. It was my second time attending the service, and I was, admittedly, attempting to relive my experience in Mexico by surrounding myself with the culture.

The guy (who's name, incidentally, is Jeff) was able to take set aside his Americanism while still in America by attending an Hispanic service! This tells me that authentic Christian community in an American context is not a pipe-dream. But it will takes LOTS of work...

We're not supposed to come together and take a passive stance, being talked at and taught, so that we can store up clever cliches and acronyms with little practical value. Worship is work.

I believe this passionately! I'm SO tired of hearing "I'm not being fed at my church, so I'm leaving...". As if the reason the local church exists is for you - you know, the average Christian American with 5 Bibles, a zillion free Bible studies on the Internet, wads of expendable cash [relative to most in the world] to spend on books and study tools, and a pastoral staff just waiting for your Bible questions - the local church exists to feed you?!? Most of the Christians in my circles are getting fat on Bible study - we don't need less of it, we just need to apply what we've learned and burn off some of the spiritual calories we're taking in!

We can learn a lot from our Hispanic brothers and sisters when it comes to community (and probably much more). It will take work, but if we really want to be effective in this postmodern, post-Christian America we'd better roll up our sleeves.

But here's the secret: the hard work is the most rewarding you could ever do. Once you've even just tasted deep Christian community you'll agree with Jeff:

It wasn't eloquent or well-orchetrasted, but it was fellowship. And now, I'm hooked.

Hatushili