Isaiah 1:13-17 and Why People Don't Go to Church

It seems fashionable these days to blog about why people don't go to church.  There are lots of reasons given as to why, depending on who you read. It's "contemporary worship" services that keep people away.  Or traditional ones.  It's conservative culture war rhetoric.  Or social gospel liberalism.  It's leadership.  Or laity.

I spoke not long ago with a United Methodist pastor who shared that his bishop says people not attending church is a "cultural problem."  The Bishop meant a problem with society, not the church.  I wonder.

The church in America is dying.  Or it is transitioning.  Or on the verge of a great awakening.  Or really hasn't changed much, it's just an illusion of the way people attend church.  Depending on who you read.

I think I agree with Fr. Richard Rohr that we are so trapped in dualistic thinking that we can't truly evaluate what's going on.  We think it is a "conservative/liberal" problem, rooted in theology.  We think it is a "contemporary/traditional" problem, rooted in form of worship.  We think it is a "churched/unchurched" problem rooted in culture.  We always think it's the Devil...and the Devil is external (the problem with that thinking, for me, is that an external Satan necessitates an external God which leads to all sorts of other false dichotomies that keep us from ever really seeing God, ourselves or others).

I've said for quite some time that there is no such thing as "secular" and "sacred."  It's all God's world. That means hymns and gangsta rap...including the parts that need to be redeemed.  And I'm mostly talking about the misogynistic, abusive language of that music that needs to be redeemed...and I mean the hymns, of course.  The gangsta rap isn't usually as offensive or influential as those terrible hymns we sing.

There are other false dichotomies that we use..."conservative vs. liberal" which often has both sides as rooted in ego and false self as they are rooted in some kind of "theology" (and I use the "" because it really isn't a study of God...it's still just about us...the false self).  "Traditional vs. contemporary" is a ridiculous distinction, I don't care how many books by people far more educated than me have been written about it...or how many churches have been divided asunder into "Contemporary service" and "Traditional service" while still worshiping in the same building.  It's a false distinction and any student of the history of church music should know that.  It's just easier for us to say that people aren't coming because they don't like our style of music and our liturgy (whether we say we have a liturgy or not)...yeah, that's it.  It's not that there's something fundamentally wrong with who we are as church.  We know this because we've been this way for centuries. "Clergy vs. laity" is a false dichotomy rooted in roles and labels and expectations that we define people by and rooted in the scarecrows that we set up in the field of the church...it's just an illusion that we've created to make us feel like we've got it together.  Well, we probably don't.  And the terms "clergy" and "lay leader" and "laity" and "church member" and "non member" are really just straw with clothes on.  It's ok to admit it now...the rest of the world already knows.

Why must we continue to ask all the wrong questions in our church institution?  Why must we treat the people we live and work and play with as a market for church?  We're just asking the wrong questions.  We're having the wrong meetings.

So why do I think people don't go to church?  I have no idea and I don't know how important it is.  Why do you still go?  What is so important about church for you?  Is it ok that those things aren't important to everyone else?  If not, why not?  And why aren't those things important to others?

Is the church in America dying?  Probably.  That's great news.  The church needs to die.  Put some buildings up for sale.  Cash out some endowments.  It will be ok.  Are we really worried about the church or just about this tent of our own making?  Why are we so worried about the death of the church, our local church, our denomination, our religious institutions...and why isn't the rest of America blogging about it?  When someone who doesn't go to church and doesn't want to start going writes a book about "Reasons why people don't want to go to church," I'll be the first to buy it.  Otherwise, I'm not very interested.  Because, honestly, I don't care if "the church" lives or dies.  I care if people live or die...and survival is not the same as living, either.  And if the church in America or anywhere else...or any other institutional body or organization on Earth...isn't bringing about life, then I'm ok with it dying and something else taking its place.  I've always heard that we have to wait for some people to die before the ship of state for the institutional church can alter its course...let's not tie it all to physical death, shall we?  Let's hope that some of us might die to our notion of church first, before we give up the ghost on this side of eternity.

Of course, I don't think the church ever really dies...but it's awfully funny watching all of us fret about the significance of new religious and social polls about church attendance as if we were D.C. politicians gearing up for the next election.  And the church acts that way...we want to change our talking points and the way we do meetings and how we brand ourselves and hope that no one will notice that we never fundamentally became a different creature...a new creation.

So the best message I can think of for a dying church (not that that's a bad thing) is the message of Isaiah in the first chapter.  I've taken some liberties with it.  Feel free to dismiss them as bullshit.  It's what most of America has done to the church and what we have to say anyway.

Isaiah 1:13-17...sort of.

Stop bringing all of your "revolutionary" yet meaningless "changes" to the table--all this ridiculous talk hurts my ears. As for your conferences about church transformation and worship style and your special emphases on restructuring and cultural relevance...they're as false as your motives for talking about them.  I hate your meetings.  You're always meeting about something...Your meetings are as annoying to me as they are to you, deep down, anyway.  You sure are busy, but I'm not impressed.  Because you bear the guilt of innocent victims.  You know, the ones you blame for not supporting your precious institutions anymore.  Sweep out your own house, get rid of what's wrong with you instead of trying to fix something "out there." 

Try this for a church transformation program:  Learn how to do good.  Seek justice.  Worry about people who are oppressed.  Defend people who get ignored.  Fight for the rights of those who don't have enough clout to fight themselves.

Have I really hit on the problem?  Maybe not.  I'm perfectly ok with being wrong about if and why and when the church is declining/dying/transitioning.  It just doesn't matter to me.  I do know this--If the institutional church were to heed a few of the ideas above, we'd realize that the church living or living again is as simple (not easy but simple)...as simple as taking in Breath.

The Power of Presence: How sitting at the table subverts abuse of power and changes the world

They don't want you there.  They see your very presence as an affront.  Who do you think you are anyway?  Why must you always have an AGENDA?

It's been my experience that in places where power is concentrated, especially political power in the religious world, the above statements are often implied, if not outright said or asked.  Especially the part about an agenda.  Power is concerned with agendas...specifically those that don't conform to THEIR agenda.

After a while, you'll learn your place.  You won't be asked to do anything significant...you're there to learn, surely.  You have a lot to learn from Power, they think, because if you knew what they knew you wouldn't believe what you believe or behave as you do.  So, keep coming to the church conferences and meetings and conventions and conclaves--but please be quiet; you're here to learn, not teach.  Oh, Power has heard what you have to say...you're so loud and obnoxious, Power thinks.  And it must be true, it often feels like you're shouting because you are the only voice in the room saying anything different from what everyone else is saying--"Why can't you get with the program?" Power will ask.  "Why don't you see things our way?  Shhhhhh!  We're trying to help you!"  So as the lone voice that no one ever listens to, you gradually raise your voice until someone notices...and cuts you off.  It's discouraging.  It's disheartening.  It makes you lose your faith in Christianity.  And maybe it should.  Because Christianity has failed.  The fact that the church of Jesus Christ even exists today is a testimony to the resurrected Lord, for only a living God could keep such a failed institution alive.  Even as I write this, I am aware that I might be misunderstood...as though I did not value education, or faithful service, or history, or traditions.  None of that is true.  But I do not hang my hat on any of those things.  I hang my hat on Christ.  I believe education is what frees and empowers the people of God, that faithful service is what sustains the church, that history is God's activity with humanity bringing us to today and helping us dream for tomorrow, and that traditions reflect the values that we have as God's community.

Yet, if church history and education and tradition teaches me anything, it is that it was most often the dissenters that were right.  Only later does Power get with the program and try to downplay the centuries of not listening to those obnoxious and annoying naysayers.  And the death rattle of mainstream Christian denominations and sects in America is a testimony to the failed ventures of Power and Influence and Empire.  Why would you even go back?  Why even be a part of the conversation anymore?  Why even show up?  Why go forward for communion if you know you'll be refused?  Why attend the conversations if you know they are only monologues and not dialogues?

You show up, because real transformation happens when you show up.  Don't get it wrong, either--not just transformation for Power (which desperately needs the transformation that only dying to self can bring), but transformation for you.  Showing up at the table that you were only invited to as a formality, with the silly notion that your non-establishment, non-member-of-this-club status really makes you equal to those sitting with you at the table, offers an opportunity for you to learn and grow.  (I should probably add that even though these are valuable lessons, it's also perfectly good and right and just to vociferously protest such treatment!)  Being treated like "the help" may make you a better servant...and when you leave that table to go to the table that really DOES include every voice and makes every person important, it will certainly make you a better leader.  It will help you see that person who is dead wrong as important...because it really wasn't about being right or wrong anyway.

You show up because it subverts the power of Empire that constantly threatens and overpowers the church of Christ.  The Power that sees its authority derived from lineage, pedigree, education, connections, or length of service.  And when you show up, claiming only Christ as your creed and claiming only the title "Child of God" and recognizing no greater distinction than this, you chip away (ever so slightly) at the walls of the church institution that keep out even Christ at times.

You show up because you being there opens up a seat for the person that wasn't invited.  You open up a spot for the one wasn't thought of.  You thought of them because you know what it feels like to be ignored, muted, put down, the object of condescending statements and glances.  And you will mention those children of God who should be at the table but who are left out because they are even further out on the margins than you.  If you don't show up, who will mention them?

You show up because inside of you is the Spirit of God burning like a flame.  John Wesley said it best; "Catch on fire...and people will come from miles to watch you burn."  Lest you become haughty, remember that the Spirit of God is present as well in the hearts of those sitting at the table with you.  Even those who ignore you.  The bush was always burning...Moses was just the first to see it.  You show up because when you see the Spirit of God in even the hardest of hearts, you are able to point Power to where Real Power is.  Not in buildings and cathedrals and constitutions...but in wind and in crowds of people all speaking different languages at once...and in a fire that burns within you.

You show up because the notion that the people in charge are really in charge of anything is as ridiculous to you as it is to the Spirit-Wind of God Who blows where She wants.  It's as ridiculous to you as it is to the rest of the world who shakes their head at institutional Christianity, wondering if anyone there will start talking about things that matter.  Those in Power don't have any Real Power so long as they continue to point to all of the man-made constructs of religion to validate who they are.  They have no Real Power so long as they continue to believe that ecclesiastic office means ministry and church titles mean leadership.

You show up because you realize that any authority or Real Power they might ever have, exists outside of all of those trappings.  Behind the robes.  Behind the stoles.  Behinds the desks with nameplates.  Behind the credentials.  Behind the titles.  In the heart. Of every person.  Where God is.

 You show up because someone has to keep saying THAT.