Do you feel emptiness and bore in your life? Do you find no true friendship? Don't know where to go on Sunday? Let's come to our church, here are our features:
- Worship starts after 11am, so you don't need to wake up early. It also means you can stay out late on Saturday night.
- Our church equips with the best audio system. The church play upbeat modern music. You can even stand and move your body. Good exercise.
- Our Pastor speaks in presentation style, point by point. It won't waste your time and you can surely learn something.
- Free coffee and snack provided.
- Our church also provides free workshop in health care and investment topic, a good place for social networking.
- The easiest way to go to heaven while improving your social life.
The above is an exaggerated FAKE story. Don't take it seriously. But I heard some Christian worry that modern church may become too commercialize. I also visited some church before that gave me similar impression. Actually, I don't have much comment if this type of new church style good or bad. I just feel interesting that when a church tries to attract more people, it may become more like a commercial product.
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3 comments:
I believe only LOVE and GOD can really get ppl "stay long attracted"...
Your post is inspiring.. gets us think about what is the real essence of church.
Let me extend your topic a bit.
Once a church is going that way as you've mentioned, there are at least 2 traps that the church has fallen into:
(1) The church is building a group of christians who see their role in christianity as consumers instead of givers. (the thinking that "I am here to be served, and you pastors are here to serve us"). This is exactly to the opposite as what Jesus teach us to be givers and builders of church.
(2) The trap of materialism. I am not only referring to the kind of materialism about christians wanting more enjoyment. What I mean here refers to the church leaders' hierarchy. Materialism is the belief that "only things that can be seen, touched.. exist". There is a trap for church leaders to believe "what is visibile is true". So, things like how "big" a church is, the "number of ppl attending church services".. are dragging church leaders' attention to believe these are indicators for church success. Church leaders are even putting their most effort in achieving these visible products. However, these are not real indicators for church success, because what Jesus demands of churches are invisible things -- He demands for our hearts, He cares if we are living in the spiritual level, He cares about what our minds are thinking, He cares if we have love inside, He is eager to give us dreams, He speaks of fruits of life which lives inside us. All these are invisible, in contrast with things like sizes of the church (which Jesus never had mentioned about). I believe this is a very big trap that churches today are falling into. (Esp churches that have a desire to build a big empire and desiring to grow mega. These churches are more tempted to use ways like Sammy Cafe's mentioned just for achieving those materialistic numbers).
Speaking of big church, there is one nearby by my home:
http://www.jubilee.org
I never visit this church before, so please don't presume I am putting negative (or positive) comment on it. I just want to share my amazement for their size, because:
1. this seems to be a new church in my neighborhood.
2. they occupy the size larger than a football field, this is large even in US standard
3. they have a seperate building for child care center
4. On Sunday morning, there will be a couple police cars in my neighborhood to organize the traffic
5. They have a parking lot for a few hundred cars as far as I can tell
In fact, I am a little curious for a visit. From their web site, they seems fine.
When you met an old Christian friend, the first (or second) question you asked would probably be "How many people are attending the worship?". After reading the comments, I know that the size of church does not matter.
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