The Drunk Church

When I was in college, as a religion and philosophy student, I studied a lot of postmodernism. In a class on using contemporary music in religious teaching, I presented postmodernism by using the metaphor of a hangover. For application, I played Johnny Cash's "Sunday Morning Coming Down." Postmodernism takes what we've always known to be true, deconstructs that perspective, and allows us to start from scratch, with experience and intellect to guide the way. I've had my share of crazy nights and I found this to be much like a hangover...we go through the night feeling like we know everything, confident in our worldview....and then we wake up.
I see the modern North American Evangelical church acting as the role of the drunk frat guy on Saturday night, everything is amazing and heading in the right direction, he loves everyone, and everyone loves him. The sub-movement I see happening is the hangover on Sunday morning, a mysterious awareness of something missing, something that can only be seen when all of the hype has been stripped away.
The Biblical church set a rather revolutionary example of ministry that seems to have been forgotten by the modern church. Leaders did not stay in one place with one group of people. They were spread all over to preach the gospel and maintain communication among the "churches". Churches were no more than a gathering of people in a home but mostly they functioned as the earliest form of a community organization, feeding the hungry, giving to the poor, caring for the widows and orphans.
Today's church has reached a point where community outreach and giving are simply selling points for the church and are still only done once all of the internal needs are met, sound systems, decor, salaries, technology. Are all of these things important? Of course. Without them, the church would have very little to attract those who want to have a fulfilling experience. So, the problem seems to be two-fold: a transformed view of what people expect of the church, and how corporate the church has become. It's a vicious cycle and a "chicken or the egg" dilemma, but the problem remains the same. Churches have become pep rallies for the gospel or, in some cases, for the church itself, and in doing so, have left behind the raw focus of the gospel itself.
So, what's the point of my rant? My assertion is that so many of the tragic trends we see in our culture are a direct result of the drunk church. From the divisive nature of our political world to how we relate to each other and those who are different from us...that's why this is important and that's why I'm encouraged to see a lesser visible emerging trend from the faithful who are aware of this....mostly among those who have been an active part of the church for long enough to see what's going on and who are caught in the predicament of either a complete abandonment of the church or seeking out a solution.
In an attempt to give myself some credibility with regards to writing about such things, I'll give a brief background of my own involvement in the church.
I was raised in a conservative evangelical church, where my father was the pastor. For years, I battled with the horrible things I saw in the church and what I knew to be true about the gospel and how it can transform lives. My dad never fit in. He was more comfortable in a room full of skeptics than a room full of Sunday School teachers, members who could care less what went on outside the church, and elders who wanted him to clock his hours so that he wasn't spending too much time engaging in real pastoral care. I had the unpleasant experience of knowing what happens backstage. Years of rebellion and life experience later (including the sudden death of my father before he had a chance to escape), I found my way back to Christianity, with a shitload of baggage under my arm. However, as it turns out, I seemed to have some of the gifts my dad did and found myself in seminary and in leadership at a church who truly allowed me to be me. The differences between my childhood church and my current church are significant. Does my church exhibit some of the issues I've been discussing? Yes, no one is perfect. However, at least here I have trust and respect for a leadership that is scrappy, willing to admit fault, and always listening. That's hard to come by.
That being said, I still feel the need to create a place where getting back to the basics of what the church is supposed to be is the focus.
This blog post is an attempt to unleash some bottled up thoughts and set the stage for further thought...and also to reintroduce me to the world of blogging!
There is a quiet, steady, Sunday morning voice creeping up that doesn't fit the mold of hype and extremism (more on that in an upcoming post). Because of this, I see what's going on in a hopeless world and I'm not hopeless.

Link to Johnny Cash's Sunday Morning Coming Down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBWFJ85n_w0