The Conventional Church and Me

I woke up late today and missed one class, then got an email saying the rest of my classes were canceled today.So now I sit in a very messy house with nothing to do for the rest of the day. I do believe it's Fall cleaning day. Isn't that what Americans do? I don't know....

But before I do, I really wanted to get back here and talk to a computer again.

I just recently saw a video on facebook of a really talented painter on stage, dramatically painting a picture. I've seen it all before-- no one really knows what he's painting until the last second, where he does this little trick of some sort. This time he turned the picture upside down, and there was that moment of "Oooooh, I get it. It's Jesus." Except I and everyone else with an overload of conventional Christian influence would have known the picture was going to be Jesus even before he started painting. The mega-plex stage, the studio lighting, the painter's trendy hipster clothes, the upbeat Christian music. What else could it be about? Anyway, the painter was really talented, and his clothes were really nice, and the stage was really nice, and the people who cheered after the turning of the painting were extremely nice. The lights, the hubbub, the everything was really nice.

If this was anything but a Christian church, I would be extremely impressed. If the painting was that of something other than Jesus, and if no one was doing all of this Hubbub in the name of Christ, I would have been completely happy with the art.

And I think that's something wrong with me.

Modern Christianity values Hubbub. They like different colored lights, and different trendy praise songs with conventional chord patterns, all in the convenient key of G, hopefully written by Hillsong. The guitars MUST be shiny new Fender teles or Gibsons and the Bass must be a four string, no more (We can't get too carried away, can we?) They like trendy clothing with trendy haircuts and trendy glasses.

For some reason, I've come to the conclusion that Christians shouldn't allow themselves to have these things. I think it was John Wycliffe who stated, "If I were to die with twenty pieces of gold in my pocket, I would not be doing the will of God." Or something along those lines. Perhaps true Christians should take in these words, and not put so much weight on the shiny sensationalism of the Church, and more weight on... I don't know... Christ's teaching?

They like their bibles leather, marked up and underlined with different colored ink to give the feeling of depth and understanding of "The Werd." They like to use words like, "All glory to God." and "Not my will, but His will be done." or "I love you, brother," and especially "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me." The 'all things' must be bold and italic, otherwise you just don't get the point across.

I don't mean to bash Christians. This post is more about myself. The reason I "left the Church" (as people say) is because I was both too fed up with the sensationalism that the Church as a whole has fallen into, but also because I was too scared to stay in it and make a change away from the sensationalism in my own life. I found it much easier to sit down and watch and complain about all of the things that Christians do wrong, rather than to change my own values from the Hubbub to the Hosanna. (That sounds like a nice trendy phrase that'll get popular in ten years). Anyway, this was wrong of me. And I've dug myself into this ditch of pessimism and (can I even say) unjustified hatred for the conventional Church as I watch safely from the outskirts as the church drowns itself in its own distractions.

Thanks for reading. Onto cleaning the house.
May the Grace and Peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ be with you. 


(The bolds and italics are supposed to get the point across).