churchmart, pt. 2

I have a routine when I go to the mall. I know where all three stores are that I care to look in. Each of them has similar clothing, and I can be in and out quickly. When I need jeans I know which has the ones that I prefer. This is good especially when I am shopping for a specific item. I can walk in and walk out, and get exactly what I want.

The town in which I live (Grand Rapids) is similar to the mall when it comes to churches. There are hundreds of them. If you know what you like, what your style is, you can find what you are looking for rather quickly. You can go around from church to church each week, and if the service times are right you can hit two in one day. You can find everything from places that will baptize you or your child (sprinkling and dunking) or dedicate your pet … you can find suits and ties or t-shirts and jeans. You can find loud and brash or soft and contemplative. You can find dispensational or covenant or progressive dispensational or messianic or existential. You can find it all it is the one stop shopping of whatever you like.

The interesting thing to me is that in our town so many people have the same idea that people do in the mall. They go to one place, and they feel like the “jeans don’t fit right.” So they go next door or across town and go to another place that offers the same thing, just fitted a little different. I often run into people that I have known for a number of years. The question asked is, “So what church are you a part of now?” Never, “How is your faith community at ________?”

In so many ways we have lost what it means to participate in the community of Jesus. We go to a “service” to get, to hear someone we think is cool (or deep, godly, good.) We have stopped participating with others to make the Kingdom of Heaven a reality on this earth. Some of this is because of the prominence of the Sunday Morning Service … the most unusual act of one’s week is the pinnacle of many people’s church experience.