Churches feel like lonely places. It is clear to me that one of the reasons that big churches do so well is because they don’t feel lonely, at least not immediately
•I have no doubt there are many reasons to explore about why churches are having trouble…therefore I am only tackling this one
But walking into an empty-ish church of mostly older age feels…lonely….
The loneliness is everywhere; and worse its palpable.
Here is the thing, pastors talk about this a lot…pastors tend to be lonely but little is talked about the layperson’s loneliness. The feeling that “we aren’t in this religion thing together” any more–we are in it alone.
Perhaps that is why the Spiritual but not religious label hits so hard….What do you mean you can do your religious thing by yourself? Where does that leave us…and me?
Religion can be a lonely place to be right now
I just watched Breuggeman’s Prophetic Preaching on the Old Testament which is wonderful
And he talks about how Prophetic Preaching is the breaking of the totalism (or hegemony), which is a SILENCE that leads to VIOLENCE with an outside voice
Good News is so important
Hope is so important
God is not a God who wants us to have to live and die and do everything alone.
Don’t let the emptiness of the church trick you.
Aren’t we the people of the empty tomb?
Aren’t we the people of the empty cross?
Didn’t God make the world out of the emptiness?
Didn’t God create space within God’s very self to give birth to us?
Didn’t God empty out her very self in the personhood of Jesus Christ to give us new and better life?
Churches don’t have to be lonely…don’t buy into it. The lie of death, the lie of not changing, the lie of security and worries about looks and judgements…..don’t believe these lies
God creates…we are called to create and be CREATIVE with God
To me that work is fulfilling, not lonely at all…
