There is a conspiracy that is getting some shout outs in the online world I inhabit titled Advent Conspiracy that looks very interesting to me. There is an accompanying book -another to add to the queue. Today, there was an excerpt that made the rounds in Facebook:

“Spending less requires us to plan, research, and cultivate relationships-pursuits that are more taxing than flipping through the latest catalog or bingeing at the mall.” -Page 50-51, from the Advent Conspiracy book

I like this quote, and even though I have not read the book yet and don’t know the context, I can make an educated guess at what this idea is getting at. There is also an outstanding article by one of my favorite ecclesial dreamers, Chris Seay, titled The Religion of Consumerism that shines light on the whole thing.

As an ecclesial dreamer, I wonder if this can apply to the embodiment of church? Could it be that the mega-church or program driven church can be the same thing as a mall or shopping catalog? It seems to me that too often people equate numerically growing churches as being “blessed” but maybe they are just economically convenient. I have been in churches long enough to know that the typical Sunday morning production is financed by a small minority of the people who actually attend the event. When getting the weekly spiritual fix is as cheap and convenient as we make it, is it any wonder that people don’t really want to live out their faith as a communal way of life?

Contributing¹ to a smaller church requires (each and every one of) us to plan, research, and cultivate relationships—pursuits that are (much) more taxing than attending a church with great programs or binge consuming at the mega-church.

My old church is making this transition from a mid size church (when I was around) to a growing, developing mega-church (which it is today). Their current leadership has publicly stated that God is calling them to build a larger campus where they can do more for all the people God is bringing to them. (And as the church continues to be “blessed by God”, more and more people are losing the opportunities to contribute and participate in any meaningful (1 Corintians 12 kind of) way. Growing, successful churches need professional leadership. The Sunday morning production of the show requires high quality standards to appeal to the people who God is bringing. Contributions of the gifts of the people in the congregations are too time consuming and hard to coordinate. Even volunteers in the worship band may no longer make the cut. While there will always be openings in the children’s ministry program, if that is not your calling, all that is required (and encouraged) is to show up, enjoy the show, give the ecclesial “amen” and throw a bit of money in the pot.

I personally don’t believe that God calls churches to build bigger campuses. I tend to lean more in the direction of one of my favorite poems:

The Valley Of Vision

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
Where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights;
Hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine;
Let me find Thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty,
Thy glory in my valley.

I suspect that the Advent Conspiracy is a great book and I am looking forward to reading it. I am quite certain, however, that shopping catalogs and malls are not going away any time soon. I am equally confident that small churches will continue to struggle to survive and the “blessed” churches will continue to grow. And I believe that just as the quote from the Advent Conspiracy alludes to in the realm of shopping, choosing the mega-church is the easy option. As more and more people make that choice, more is lost than gained.

This year we should all support the Advent conspiracy not just by supporting the digging of wells and giving of water, or avoiding shopping malls and debt. Maybe we can also skip the Sunday show and visit a homeless shelter, nursing home, or hospital. Or maybe instead of attending a church service we can invite our neighbors (what is their names again?) to our houses for brunch.

Maybe this year the birth of the liberating Jesus really will change the world.

1. by contributing, I do not mean putting money in the plate. I mean, exercising your gifts and sharing them with the community as in 1 Corinthians 12 [back]

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Everything Else.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.