Sunday, January 4, 2009

Communion for five please...

After teaching last sunday over evil and chaos, and using the brilliant new Batman The Dark Knight movie scene where Joker is in the interogation room of the police station and Batman is forced by Joker to break one of his rules... and its brilliant... and some people got it and others didn't...

and so goes the church.

Its seems that some people get it while others simply don't, and I struggle on what approach is the best approach to herd them along into a more meaningful and HONEST relationship with Jesus/God. It appears that many are content with mere showing up while others are not. I know that it is a progressive walk and this is one of many steps on that walk, so I'm hesistant to push. I know this because it was part of my walk. In the southern united states, it is a cultural and social thing to do: go to church. Its not really because you are a christian and just love to get up and go worship, its sort of the expected thing, and hopefully, somewhere along the way, something "clicks" in your little head and heart and it becomes meaningful and expressive and relational.

but we have to slow down and be purposeful don't we, and that is very difficult in this society. A society of cell phones and text messages and internet and schedules and deadlines and...

so this thought came to me this morning. To accomodate the busyness of every day life, maybe we should put a drive thru window at the church, like Bon Qui Qui at King Burger, with a menu of what's available and you can order it there (and leave your monetary donation of course).

"Communion for 5 please", I ask over the intercom at the drive thru window. The red LED display confirms my order for 5 communions and flashes a "do this in rememberance of me" quote...

God i hope not. ~npp

3 comments:

Les (Endlessly Restless) said...

Hmm... interesting thought. In Scotland we don't have the same societal pressure to attend church any more, so generally those turning up have chosen to do so. But there are still many who are happy as 'passengers'. Of course, that's partly about being inspired from the front... but also allowing ourselves to be challenged by God. We had a speaker at our church a few months ago who spoke about being relevant not trendy... but I still think some folks (including leaders) don't get it!

By the way I totally agree about the Dark Knight - it was a brilliant movie and there are loads of themes that can be taken from it, so good luck with that.

nonprofitprophet said...

ER - yes its getting less and less here in the States as well about being pressured to go to church, but is still more of a cultural expecation in the south than in the north. Relevant- definetly, which may actually not be trendy depending.
If i were a bright fellow, I would right a whole study over the Dark Knight and make millions and millions and millions of dollars...(all for the kingdom of course! ;)

~npp

KJ said...

NPP! I'm so behind on blog reading! Christian culture is a strange brid these days. There are those that really do seem content to punch their card every week for church. It seems to work for them. And then there are those who have done that and one day...something snaps. Auto-pilot doesn't work any more. It seems for me that once I started asking questions, one leads to another. So, there's a restlessness that doesn't seem to go away and yet i'm pretty content with this!