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Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Visiting Churches

We've been visiting churches in our (sort of new) community recently. Some recent reading about contextualization on other blogs got me thinking further about our experiences. One particular church has wonderful theology. The people are wonderful and they faithfully preach the gospel. The problem I have with the church is that the worship service is very "traditional" as in robes, hymns, psalter, kids in service, etc. It's too small a church for me to consider it high worship, although it technically is. Worst of all for us is that the service is 1 hr 45 minutes long. I can't pay attention that long, much less my 3 year old. When I'm in the worship service, I feel like (based on my background) that I'm in a foreign country...like they are trying to take me back to old Europe when I live in a suburb of Dallas, Texas in 2008. I know all the theological reasons for why they make the choice in worship that they make. I know that they sincerely don't want to "water down" the wonder of the gospel and worship of Christ by turning it into a performance. I CAN appreciate that but every time I visit I can't help but feel like they don't care about me or the culture that I/we live in...not unlike some people from other countries might feel when someone brings American traditions to their country. In light of the need for contextualization (making the gospel relevant), I can't help but be concerned when a church ignores the culture of the community around them. They just seem so confined by unnecessary rules. Could a new believer survive in that environment? How many more people could they reach with the beautiful news if they made the service more relevant (by that I don't mean seeker sensitive)? We may end up at this church because of the many other positive aspects...but it'll be a hill to climb. Where am I wrong?

A good article on contextualization from the authority on the subject, Tim Keller, can be found by clicking here.