Occasio

It's hard to get in the door: How Rich Are You?

"It's hard to get in the door" is a series of posts illustrating why those searching for Christ often have a hard time accepting the church. If you have been raised in the church, try imagining what this piece would look like if you had grown up in a world without it. If you are unfamiliar with the culture of church, this will probably seem pretty absurd. All comments are welcome!

Pastor James reminded me of how wealthy I am when he sent me the link below. Maybe one of the reasons people despise the American church so much is because of the way we who are in it use our money. What signal do we send when the most expensive building on our church campus (often a multi-million dollar building) is used only a couple of hours a week? In general, churches lock up their buildings and protect their property, secluding themselves from the world. I love the "open door" policy of the Catholic church: always open for prayer, meditation and rest, a true "sanctuary."

What message do we send when we are the richest Christians on the planet, but at the same time the most self-indulgent? Poor believers in India ask, "How can you call yourself a Christian when you have so much money?"

If you want to find out just how contradictory a theology of love is with the lifestyle you live click here. I'm guilty. No wonder so many are skeptical of our God.

Update: I just found a relevant newspaper article this morning. Click here to read about the Long Beach church (just outside of Orange County) that is being fined by the city for sheltering homeless people. "It's hard to get in the door...."

It's hard to get in the door: The Lord's Gym

"It's hard to get in the door" is a series of posts illustrating why those searching for Christ often have a hard time accepting the church. If you have been raised in the church, try imagining what this piece would look like if you had grown up in a world without it. If you are unfamiliar with the culture of church, this will probably seem pretty absurd. All comments are welcome!

Did you catch this one on ABC News two nights ago? In a segment entitled "Heavenly Bodies" we were given an update on the latest trend in Christian fitness centers. The Lord's Gym has as its theme verse, 1 Corinthians 6:19, "do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?" From this they, and others, build a theology of looking good and eating healthy. Of course the interpretation of "looking good" and "eating healthy" is left up to those who promote this stuff.

The ABC report features fitness programs like "The 40-Day Extreme Makeover," and books including Body by God, The Hallelujah Diet, and What Would Jesus Eat? The "Bible Bar" is a hot selling item in Christian gyms; it contains the seven foods of Deuteronomy. These are apparently divinely sanctioned for all time. (Can you name all seven foods? See Deuteronomy 8:7-8 to find out what you're missing.)

Folks who subscribe to this craze take Joshua 1:9 very literally (though very out of context): Be strong and courageous. In this case "strong" is interpreted as physical strength. I suppose it could also apply to strong personality, strong leadership style or strong body odor. Certainly it wouldn't reference a strong faith in a powerful, caring God.

In this multi-billion dollar industry, I'm guessing someone is making a lot of money off of Christians. Sounds like more snake oil to me.

You can watch the ABC News report here, and find the article here.   

It's hard to get in the door....

It would be impossible for me to catalog the most meaningful/thoughtful/favorite U2 lines, but if I did compile a list the following would definitely be at the top:

Jesus never let me down
You know Jesus used to show me the score
Then they put Jesus in show business
Now it's hard to get in the door
"If God Will Send His Angels," Pop, 1997

Why is spirituality so important to U2 and why is church viewed with such suspicion? Why is it so hard to get in the door?

Another favorite lyric:

And I'd join the movement
If there was one I could believe in
Yeah I'd break bread and wine
If there was a church I could receive in
"Acrobat," Achtung Baby, 1991

Bono often reflects on the hypocrisy of a church predisposed to conflict, exclusivity, inaction, self-indulgence, greed and a general disregard for God. He has regularly made statements like, "religion often gets in the way of God." That seed was planted by growing up with a Catholic father and a Protestant mother, and was brought to full bloom by living in a war torn country (Ireland) where terrorists routinely killed one another in the name of Christianity.

Why is it so hard to get in the door? For those who live in the real world, a world in which church has no meaning or purpose, this question is more relevant than the people who call themselves Christians. The general populace is tired of the blond-haired, blue-eyed, Val-Kilmer-look-alike Jesus that "If God Will Send His Angels" speaks of above. Brian McLaren asks, "Where is a person least likely to go when he/she wants to know about God?" His answer: the church. I agree.

I'm starting a category of blog entries entitled "It's hard to get in the door." I want to give examples of why I think so many find Christ desirable but the church such an obstacle. Most of this is a result of a grossly out of touch Christian subculture. I've been collecting examples of isolation, compromise and irrelevance. See "Take the Plastic Christ out of Christmas" if you want to know what I'm talking about. I invite you to leave your stories and examples as well.

Why is it so hard to get in the door? Why are people ready to accept Christ but not the church? More to come....

I stopped outside a church house
Where the citizens like to sit
They say they want the kingdom
But they don't want God in it
"The Wanderer," Zooropa, 1993

You say
Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter
Well then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt
"One," Achtung Baby, 1991