Grande Vanilla Church… No Whip
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to host a Pastor from Albania, here in the States. In a conversation, I asked him what he thought would be some of the challenges facing the American Church. His answer surprised me, but over the last eight years of pastoral ministry I have found his words to be more and more true.
The Pastor from Albania told me the greatest obstacle in the American church would be “choice.” Choice, really? I was taken off-guard. With everything else that could possibly hinder the church how could “choice” be that important? He went on to explain that in his country, one of the poorest in the world, he does not have many choices. For example take something basic, like shopping for meat in the store: he purchases whatever the store has on that particular day. Sometimes the store has two kinds but usually there is only one. In contrast, here in the United States, think about how many different choices of cuts, types and grades of meats we can choose from. Or what about toothpaste? Do we really need hundreds of different types of toothpaste?
While choice, in and of itself, is not wrong, living a consumer lifestyle can have a negative impact on our spiritual lives. In our minds we tend to think more choice is better because it “frees” us. However, the Albanian Pastor’s point was that Americans live with the illusion of control and our lives and choices are built around our personal preferences constantly. Without even realizing it, we operate in an “I get what I want” world down to the smallest minutiae.
Our right to “choice” doesn’t stop in the supermarket, but infiltrates how we think about church. “Church shopping” is a common phenomenon in the American church. “Church shopping” is when someone shops around for a church that meets their needs. By needs, church shoppers mean preferences. They “shop” for a church that meets their preferences. “Church shoppers” are choosing a church like shopping for anything else. Isn’t it ironic that people think they have the ability to choose something for their own needs, almost as though they best know how to meet those needs and that they ought to be in control?
The result of our consumer lifestyle and having access to so many choices is we start to believe we are actually in control of our lives, and that our will is what matters. We tend to have a difficult time submitting to someone else’s will, whether it’s God’s or the leadership in our church, we believe we deserve to choose everything. If we disagree with someone in the church we just move to another church where more of our needs are met.
One of the most beautiful parts of following God is releasing control of our needs to him and letting him have control. We are not actually letting him, but rather acknowledging that in reality he already has control, that generally we are just trying to take his place. He is the only one who can meet our deepest longings and he knows them better than we do. He is the creator and we are the creatures.
The church does not exist to meet your need but to be a light to the world. We all have desires the church should fulfill WHILE we are on mission. Desires like being a part of a body or giving of ourselves to a purposeful community. But that is not the purpose of the church. If people lift up those things or other things as the reason why we a part of a church, people will continue to “church shop” because no church is designed to meet those needs. The purpose of the church is to be a light to the world. The color of the pews really doesn’t matter that much.
“Not my will, but yours, be done.” – Jesus, praying to the Father
