Adventure Racing vs. Church Attendance

Last weekend, I was part of a team at an Adventure Race.  An Adventure Race involves biking, trekking (running/walking on trails and rough terrain), and canoeing.  We followed maps to checkpoints and traveled many miles for nine hours.  It was ...crazy.  Fun, horrible, exhausting, exhilarating, and frustrating.  I missed out on church the next day because I couldn’t quite get myself out of bed.  Some would say this was a bad thing, that I should go to church no matter what, that it is my duty, that I missed out on something terribly important.  Others might say, being in nature, enjoying the fellowship of friends, appreciating the gift of a healthy body are all ways of praising God and therefore the race was, in a sense, church.  In the spirit of healthy competition, let’s look more closely at these arguments and tally up the results.  The race is on.  Which will be the winner?

Adventure Racing

More prayer happens on an adventure race (please let me make it up this hill, please don’t let me have a heart attack, thank you we didn’t just capsize when we hit that stump with our canoe, please let this be the right trail, THANK YOU FOR THE FINISH LINE!)  1 pt.

Church

Has a working bathroom just steps away.  With toilet paper.  And a sink.  And a toilet seat on which one doesn’t mind sitting.  This might be worth more than one point. 1 1/2 pts.

Adventure Racing

An opportunity to learn the value of a focal point or a mantra to achieve a meditative trance like state.  The top of the hill is an excellent focal point and “oh crap, oh crap, oh crap” or “never again, never again, never again” make excellent mantras.  1 pt.

Church

Though the service might seem long, you don't actually have to pack in your own food and water.  Unless you have small children.  Hmm.  Maybe only half a point.  

Adventure Racing

Experience the power of nature as the wind consistently manages to push you in the opposite direction to wherever you are attempting to paddle the canoe.  1 pt.

Church 

Praise God for the beauty of God’s creation. 1 pt.

Adventure Racing

Experience the beauty of God’s creation. 1 pt.

Church

No poison ivy or ticks. 1 pt.

Adventure Racing

No struggle to stay awake.  The adrenaline produced while biking over pointy rocks really wakes a person up. 1 pt.

Church 

Fellowship around coffee may barely edge out fellowship over electrolyte chews and water.  Though the water tastes heavenly the fellowship is disrupted by all the wheezing and gasping. 1 pt. 

Adventure Race

Enjoy the very satisfying feeling of having completed the race without bonking (a.k.a. hitting the wall).  I think I bonked in regards to much of church life a long time ago.  1 pt.

Church

Pews are marginally more comfortable than a bike seat. 1 pt. 

Totals: Adventure Racing= 6 points 

Church= 6 points

Well, there you have it.  It’s a tie!  

Obviously I am just having some fun here.  But, I do think folks in the Christian church might do well to be a little less uptight about church attendance as the best way to experience God.  Perhaps when people tell us they can experience God better in nature than at church we could rejoice with them that they are experiencing God somewhere.  

The Bible As Answer Book or Young People As Teachers?

Does anyone else ever think reading the comments following blogs or articles about religion is horribly detrimental to spiritual and mental health? (Not the comments on this blog, of course.  That’s different.)  Often as I am reading comments I ask myself, “Why are you reading this?  You know it will only make you angry or depressed?”  So, I tear myself away from the computer but alas the damage is done.

Yet, it is important to hear opinions which differ from my own, even if they make me angry and tug me back toward cynicism.  It is important to hear such opinions because they help me to step back and review my own beliefs with an eye toward seeing inconsistencies and areas where I might be wrong.  Sometimes opposing opinions help me to see the underlying differences, the foundation from which our differences arise beyond surface politics.

Such was the case this week.  I read two thought provoking articles about young people and why they do or don’t go to church and how their faith and world differs from that of other generations.  I often assume the underlying difference between my own opinions and those of more conservative brothers and sisters is our view of scripture.  The comments following these articles helped me to realize this may not be the case. The source of the conflict may be more basic: a completely different understanding of the world.  It boils down to this: do we believe we have all the answers?  Do we believe God as revealed in the bible, answers all questions, explains suffering and death, explains why things happen the way they happen, what we should do, why we are here?  Do we believe God has given all these answers in a way which is easy enough to discern so any good spiritual leader can provide any answer you need? 

Mallory McDuff’s article Why I Made My Teenager Go to Church talked about a highly articulate young woman who admitted to questioning the Creeds.  This young woman said her church was a place which encouraged such questions and gave her a way to have faith even when she doesn’t know what she believes.  To me, this was a beautiful statement of faith and meaning from a thoughtful young woman.  Some of the comments which followed lamented no one was there to give this young woman the answers.  This reveals such a different worldview than my own and helps me to see why I am uncomfortable even with some people who do allow questioning.  If we assume we have the answers than questioning might be okay in a patronizing sort of way but ultimately one must surrender to the answers sanctioned by a given church.  I see the world and God as much more mysterious, perplexing and troubling.  The idea of the bible as a big answer book falls apart within a few verses, Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind.’”  If humankind hasn’t been created yet, who is “us”?  Sure this can be explained but if it has to be explained this already throws out the window any idea of the plain truth of scripture which anyone can read and understand.  Which introduces human interpretation and any knowledge of history reveals the fallibility of human interpretation. 

  

Then there are the violent passages of scripture which advocate genocide.  Reconciling those scriptures with a loving God requires some major interpreting and explaining.

Then we only have to lift up our eyes and see the suffering and injustice in the world to be swamped with more questions and explaining.  

So, I just don’t get how anyone can possibly think any version of the church has all the answers.  This worldview is so foreign to me it suddenly makes more sense why conversations with such folks are so very difficult.  

And it also makes more sense to me why some seem troubled by articles such as Heidi Haverkamp’s, Why Congregations Shouldn't Work So Hard To Keep Their Young People.  This article tells about a teenager who is an active participant in his synagogue, thoughtful and engaging, open to seeing the beauty in other spiritual traditions, concerned about justice issues, and yet doubts he will participate in any religious institution in adulthood.  If we are concerned about people getting the right answers to all their questions, then this young man is headed away from the source of those answers.   But if life is a journey, exploring questions while growing in love for our neighbors and the world, then this young man’s life is the unfolding of a beautiful story of God at work in the world.  

Our young people are amazing.  They question and they doubt and their faith may not look like many of us think it should.  Yet it is a beautiful faith which continues to astound me with its openness and justice seeking love.  Our young people have much to teach us.  Maybe we should stop trying to give them the answers and learn from them instead.  

But then, that’s just me, operating from my worldview in which there are no easy answers and always much to learn.  

Can Following Jesus Survive the Institutional Church?

I have participated in or eavesdropped on some conversations lately, about people doing amazing and powerful ministry and still their church or their ministry is dying.  This is confusing and dismaying.  When a ministry is focused on following Jesus, serving people, loving people, working for justice and peace, why would it not succeed?

I wonder if this is due to the structure of the church.  The church has by and large bought into a business model of doing ministry.  We have hierarchy, business meetings, budgets, and bring in consultants to help us create a plan for ministry.  We pay overhead, salaries, pensions, insurance.  Lest non-denominational churches congratulate themselves for their lack of hierarchy: elders are a hierarchy and evangelism involving acronyms smacks of a business model more than anything (see comment by Dan Bryan on Why I Don't Believe in Evangelism Thanks Dan!).  Lest my pastor friends think I care nothing for their livelihood: pensions and salaries aren’t necessarily bad, it’s the model as a whole with which I am concerned.  

A business model of doing ministry cannot survive unless it brings in money.  Following Jesus is not necessarily a money making enterprise.  When we follow a business model, success is measured by numbers of people in the pews and amount of money brought in by those people.  It has to be that way because if the numbers aren’t there, the money isn’t there and the whole system comes crashing down.  Even the church has a survival instinct and so as things go poorly we focus more on the numbers and the money and repeatedly shoot ourselves in the foot.  

One of the conversations upon which I eavesdropped was about campus ministry.  These are the pastors/congregations/people who are present on our college campuses representing mainline denominations.  This is a ministry dear to my heart.  I had a tremendous experience through Lutheran Campus Ministry when I was in college.  This was a place where people questioned and wrestled with faith together.  We learned about hospitality and welcoming diverse people with love and respect.  We learned what community could feel like.  We learned following Jesus was about things like social justice, peace, and caring for all of our neighbors.

Ministries such as these are struggling.  Funding is waning.  I hear (eavesdropping again) arguments that campus ministry builds up leaders for the church and the church is being shortsighted in not properly supporting this ministry.  This is true but it seems this argument is buying into the way of thinking of the very institution which is incapable of or unwilling to support campus ministry.  My value as a former campus ministry student is not limited to my role as a leader in the church.  The value of campus ministry is not measured by how it can shore up the institution of the church.  The value is found in how the ministry is following Jesus.  In this way campus ministry is not just valuable for the leaders it produces but for the ministry it does.  It is a model of ministry which is not focused on business and in some ways could be a model for the future of the church.  

I have heard several stories of small congregations doing powerful ministry and being unable to keep their doors open.  These too are illustrations that the structure of church makes unsustainable some very beautiful ways of following Jesus.  Small congregations, particularly in rural areas or poor areas, who are focused on following Jesus may find it impossible to support a building, salaries and so on.  Does this mean their ministries are not worthy of survival?  Only if the measure of value is numbers based.  This does not seem consistent with the values of Jesus which I read about in scriptures.  

So, what should a different way of doing church look like?  I don’t know but I wonder if it might mean giving up our buildings which are empty 75% of the time.  It might mean full time ministers become rare.  It might mean flexible, mobile ministry, like that found in campus ministry.  It might mean seminaries are no longer institutions for training up pastors but rather bases from which teachers set out to teach the priesthood of all believers.  These are just some ideas rattling around in my head.  But I don’t believe small rural churches or campus ministries need to be on the brink of extinction.  The only dinosaur I see is the institutional, business model of being church.

What do you think the future of the church might look like?  Do you think the business model of doing church is detrimental to following Jesus?  Why or why not?