Friday, November 5, 2010

Sunday's Coming



There are times when you run into something both convicting and funny - in the last few days I have been hammered by a couple different videos, one of which I posted above. Seriously, it's like laughing while someone punches you in the gut. Then milk comes out your nose and you're a mess. But watch the video above, laugh, then spend some time thinking about how we approach the Lord in our Sunday services.

There are two dangers here for us, as Christians. The first is that we self-righteously laugh, not at ourselves but at those who are "doing it wrong," because our church is so much better than their church. We watch something like this, say "that's certainly not my church!" and then we feel pretty good. Except for the part where we do the exact same thing this video is criticizing: we make "the show" more important than the Gospel. Here, the show is lights, and music, and casual dress. In your church "the show" might be the lack of those same things, and you're sinfully prideful about what you don't have instead of what you do. But it's about Jesus, not us, and He doesn't care about your worship style, your dress code, or the other silly things we argue constantly about in Christendom.

The second danger is that we get offended because this humorous warning hits too close to home. If you see this model as the right way to do church because the other guy is sinfully legalistic... listen to what you just said. Repent, stay humble about the crowds the Lord has blessed you with, and use your epic church setup to point people to both Jesus and repentance. Fact is, We all need to ask a few questions as we approach Sunday mornings (or whenever your church meets):

What is the Gospel really about?

What have we made it?

What do we need to do to get back to the Gospel?

What do we need to stop doing that's detracting from His message?

This coming Sunday, enjoy your church, but more importantly, glorify God in your worship: in your learning from His word, your singing and your prayers.

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