What is "It" all about?
Friday, May 18th, 2007Originally posted May 18th, 2007
Last Sunday I visited one of the larger charismatic churches in this city. I was helping a friend shoot some video of a drama that was being presented for the first time.
Another friend of mine (her first time at this church) was talking to me as the three hour service was nearing the end. She had a perplexed look on her face as she looked at the hundreds of people. I asked her what she was thinking…
Her reply? “Why do all these people come here? What is the point?”
I understood where she was coming from… She is involved in a ministry to the youth of this city, they are followers of Jesus, but they don’t “go to church”. They are reaching out to hundreds of teenagers who would never set foot in a church.
In comparison, the whole three hour church service last Sunday was essentially a service for Christians. Lots of praise music. Lots of loud praying (with the pastor actually asking the sound guy to turn his microphone up so he can be heard over the crowd during the prayer), a drama that reminded the Christians about the dangers of “the world”, etc…
As far as I could tell, there didn’t seem to be much that would make any sense to a “non-believer” (as they call anybody who isn’t a “believer” and part of the church crowd). On the other hand, they sure did present a strong case for “Christians” to fear the world.
Maybe this is why so few Christians here have any non-Christian friends?
Maybe this “fear factor” is part of the reason why all churches are viewed by the general public here as being cults or sects?
Seems that somewhere along the line the churches have missed the point…