Service King Collision Center is in the background.
I have limited experience with the 21st century church, but what contact I have is unremarkable. I would characterize the “spirit-filled” churches as anything but. You never know what to expect. Great preaching and altars filled with humble Christians, or weird primitive drumming accompanied by shrieks from raindancers. A casual visitor might even look at some people and wonder if God may be hitting them with an invisible tazer. We have made God an experience, personal guidance a justification for doing practically anything, and adopted the latest fads like they are iPhones. We have made prophecy as abundant and cheap as bread, and twice as fattening. We have -sometimes simultaneously – non-Jewish people covered with Wailing Wall prayer shawls, shofars blaring from balconies, Tarzan yells which sound like women in labor, men dancing barefoot, worship warm-up stretches, the list goes on.
What’s wrong with all this? I’m not sure anything is, but I sometimes wonder if there aren’t some other things that we do need to be doing. Like singing coherently instead of chanting, praying corporately before we do anything else, being provoked rather than stroked, articulating hope for our nation rather than hype to make us feel successful, being charged with the great commission rather than comforted about our bad week or intolerable relatives. How I long for the Word to be the sword and not a butter knife, for my conscience to be pierced and not padded, for my will to be tempered by fire and not ignored, for my mind to be challenged with the complexities of Almighty God and not insulated from offense.
The church is tougher than all this, at heart. Bring it on, preachers! Tell me the truth, brother. Give me that look of conviction, sister. Quit trying to be nicer than God when it comes to sin. Say it! You’ll find that we can take on the hard sayings of Christ, rise to the challenge of the prophets, face up to the diamond-hard scratches of truth.
From now on, let’s not treat each other like we are banged up and in the lobby of Service King each week, needing repaired and a wax job. The church America needs right now is not a Craig’s Collision Center convention scene, pettily demanding something from God’s insurance policy, pampering every emotional scratch and squeaky feeling.
Vroom! Vroom! Clug! Let’s get back out there in the highways and byways where we belong. Cross the solid yellow lines now and them. Wake up some Sunday Drivers.
Lamar Howell's Weblog 