Unplugging from being "churched" for a "Tru REALigion"
To quote 2 Chainz on the Understatement track, “Real recognizes real, and you don’t look familiar!” Today’s society is looking for authenticity from the “faithful.” In other words, has there been an expungement of the sermon by our lifestyle? Have we been guilty letting our sermons outrun our character? A lack of authentic “faithful”, in my opinion, has contributed to the growing number of disinterested individuals in religion. I suggest that “REALigion” begets the notion of transparency and the ability to connect with people without the false pretense of having it all together. It’s heretical to portray a life that is so far removed from our former lives.
In what
many have called the Christian Ghetto, Christians have become disillusioned to
the fact and bought into the idea “I DON'T look like where I came from...” so much that
it has caused some to not be able to connect with those who DO look like where many of us have come from. The response from the outsiders of the faith is, “Who are you to tell me...?”
Why should I listen to you? If we’re not careful, we’ll be led to commencing a “bible
beat down” on people without any relational connection which will always equate
to rebellion.
Unchurched
is a term that that means, in the broad sense, people who are not connected
with a church.[i] In research on religious participation, it refers more
specifically to people who do not attend worship services.[ii] The Barna
Group defines the term to mean "an adult (18 or older) who has not
attended a Christian church service within the past six months"
excluding special services such as Easter, Christmas,
weddings or funerals.[iii] Barna
reports that there were 75 million "unchurched people" in
the United States as of 2004. However, let me offer my definition of unchurched, "nonconformity to the religious norm." Tradition can be a great tool to transmit information, but not to the extent that it becomes a repellent to those who are unchurched!
A
question came up recently, "Is the black church dead?" The question
had been raised in response to Eddie Glaude, Jr's comments in the Huffington
Post. Here's an excerpt:
“The Black Church, as we've known it or imagined it, is dead. Of course, many African Americans still go to church. According to the PEW Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life, 87 percent of African Americans identify with a religious group and 79 percent say that religion is very important in their lives. But the idea of this venerable institution as central to black life and as a repository for the social and moral conscience of the nation has all but disappeared.”
However,
I argue a broader perspective. Is the church dead? Don’t confuse
dead in the sense of lifelessness rather effectiveness. Have we become
too conservative, too traditional, and simply too safe? Have we abandoned
relationships in place of preserving the rules? Because it’s the rules
the keep us (sarcastically speaking of course)! If Jesus were to operate
His ministry today, would He still experience the same sense of traditionalism
over contemporizing the Gospel message? Would he preach from the pulpit
or street corners? Would His popularity among the multitudes create
resentment of the religious leaders and resistance of the religious
astute? Unfortunately, I hazard to make any assumptions.
Oftentimes,
church has been too institutionally organized rather than organically
comprised. To quote Forrest Gump, "...and that's all I got to say about that."
The
religious leaders of Christ’s day were so caught up in preserving rules, that
they became relationally inept.
Just prior to Jesus’ crucifixion he told his disciples, “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19). Now while we Christians should not worry about the fact that the world may hate us, we should make sure it is not for all the wrong reasons.
The
unchurched really are not too bothered by some hypocrisy with us Christians.
They are well aware that any human will stumble at times. But these lost men
and women want to know that Christians will treat each other well. They want to
see humility in our lives. They want to know that we will take the time to
listen, and even take more time to really be involved in their lives. And they
want to know that we love our churches.
The
unchurched really want to see a Christian live incarnationally. Most of them
will gladly listen to us if we show love toward them and toward other
Christians. Most of them desire to see a Christian live his or her faith as
well as speak about it.
I
have learned much from the world of the unchurched.
And
I know I have still have much yet to learn.
Just prior to Jesus’ crucifixion he told his disciples, “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19). Now while we Christians should not worry about the fact that the world may hate us, we should make sure it is not for all the wrong reasons.
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