Ponderings & Comparisons

This weekend was interesting.

On Saturday night Pam and I went out for dinner and then to a movie:

We drove to the theatre where we drove around for a while in search of a parking spot amidst the numerous cars. Then we went inside and found a seat (okay, I DID stand in line for popcorn!), and sat in a large room filled with a lot of people. When we took our seats we said hello to someone that Pam knew who was sitting in front of us. We enjoyed the movie and when it was over we put on our coats and walked out and back to our car and drove home.

On Sunday morning Pam and I went to church:

We drove to the church where we drove around for a while in search of a parking spot amidst the numerous cars. Then we went inside and found a seat (no popcorn available!), and sat in a large room filled with a lot of people. When we took our seats we said hello to some people that we knew who were sitting around us. We enjoyed the service and when it was over we put on our coats and walked out and back to our car and drove home.

While the point I'm making is obvious, the entire weekend experience has left me pondering many things:
(note: in no way am I being critical of the church that we went to. this commentary is more a personal one about my own state of being)

1) I wrestle with feeling that I am now a 'consumer' of a church experience. Was the church service just some kind of religious entertainment that I consumed in much the same manner as the movie?

2) Is this the way that most people experience church? It's quite a new position to be in and not one that I'm particularly enjoying.

3) How much of church services are designed to simply get people in the doors? Meaning, do we cater to this consumer mentality? I'm not so naive as to believe that this wasn't the situation at The Canopy. No, the same stuff was happening, but wow is it a wake-up call to experience it this way! Yuk!!

4) I know that we're on the fringe of this church. We're not involved or invested in it. We've got a great small group but it's from The Canopy, so it's totally separate. I'm not leading or serving in any way. So I'm on the fringe and it's a really hard place to be. I'm left feeling like some kind of spiritual leech.

5) It's hard right now to get excited about going to church. This is a totally new experience for me. I'm suddenly making mental evaluations about the service, the kids ministry, the service time, the available parking, and of all things the sermon, etc. etc. As I'm having all these thoughts in my head, suddenly the other side of my brain kicks in and says, "What the hell are you thinking? What's wrong with you?" Having spent the last 10 years of my life working in a church and strongly disliking such consumeristic mindsets, I am amazingly finding myself on the other side of the fence! (and clearly NOT liking it)

Well I think that's enough for now. I could keeping going, but these posts really shouldn't go on and on...

At this point all I have is some observations of my own experience but no real idea what exactly they mean.

More musings later!