In addition to the numerous
attempts to define “church” I begin to wonder whether there is room for a
"normal church."
Just a few minutes
of "Googling" produces quite a number of impressive adjectives, each attempting
to capture what "church" should be like: Hybrid church,
Organic church, Transformational church, Essential church, Total church,
Vertical church, Church worth getting up for, Purpose driven church, Simple
church, Church shift, The emotionally healthy church, The restless church,
Rechurch, Sticky church, Center church, Deep and wide, Dangerous church, Church
zero, Wow church, The externally focused church.
Recently I spoke
to a father of a couple of growing teenagers. With great difficulty he had
persuaded his teens to come to church. Passionately he let me know that the
church is missing an entire generation by sticking to the tried and true
liturgy of 45 minutes "worship" and a 30 to 45 minute monologue.
After the service, the atmosphere changes instantly. The young, the elderly and
the even more elderly sat or stood around tables in the what I'd like to call
social space, dipping their biscuits in the hot coffee chit-chatting away.
A classic fallacy
is to downgrade the "after service" time, as if socializing is "lesser"
time. It is clear that during these times the church family makes up and even
comes alive.
The problem is not
necessarily with the leaders of the church. Generally, they are quite open to
innovation and change. However, they are not only to keep the interests of
young people in mind , those of older people, who may be more attached to tradition
and predictability are as important.
Despite all
efforts, I do not believe that redefining what the church should be is very
affective. The new hip soon turns into the old tradition .
Years ago, every
week fifteen young people and four coaches gathered weekly in my living room to
explore the relevance of faith and to make sense of its relevance to real life.
For some of those youth that year led to a major breakthrough in their (spiritual)
life . A number of these young people had even gotten permission from their
parents not to have to attend the Sunday service as long as they were part of
my WEE (Wednesday Evening Experiment). Cool !
The "normal
" church does not belong exclusively to the Sunday. Sunday is a day when
many believers prefer to gather with fellow believers to sing, listen and get
rid of some coins (followed by coffee, tea and lemonade). The "normal
" church however operates in numerous ways and in many forms . Young
people, that the church prays so hard for, quite like to think about and explore what faith and life is all about.
However, they do need their time and space, and it is of great value to them if, during
their time of exploring, they are accompanied by men and women who hang out
with them without being judgmental,
stigmatizing, or preaching at them, but by leading a life that points in the
desired direction. I believe the church needs plenty more of these "safe
havens." I think that's pretty "normal."
Finally, I believe
that not only young people would benefit from a more casual environment at
another time during the week. I regularly am in touch with believers who are
part of a, I believe, growing group that wants more "normal." I spoke
to someone who has not been to his (large) church for two years Nobody asked
anything or even contacted them. That's not normal.
