Post Info // super fun stuff.
Does Our Worship Stink?
Often when people visit The Well, they tell us how they really enjoy our worship gatherings. Being a bit partial, I tend to agree. It is always a blessing to see and hear different people taking part in our liturgy each week. It is often moving to pray to and worship God together in song along with our gifted worship band. Coming together as a community to celebrate the work of Christ each week in Communion is also an amazing privilege. Not enough can be said about spending time socializing and catching up before and after the gathering…
But, is all of this pointless? Is God fed up with our worship gatherings? Is he sick of our “noisy ego music” as Eugene Peterson puts in The Message?
“I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice–oceans of it.
I want fairness–rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”Amos 5:21-24
This is a scary passage…
This week at The Well we had the privilege of hearing Brad, Samantha and Shanna discuss “Social Justice.” They had an amazing conversation about the connection (or lack-there-of) between our worship and social justice. The following are my notes from the message, some quotes from our discussion, and some commentary by me. Hope you find it helpful as you reflect on our time together…
Some thoughts from the stage:
Q: Why are you passionate about Social Justice?
- Sammy: “Social Justice and who I am as a Christian have to go together…”
- Shanna: “I can’t be me and not be involved in social justice…”
What great statements.
Read Amos 2:6-8 – Notice how Israel was guilty of some major sins in relation to the poor…
Q: What are some of the social injustices in our day?
- Why are children in this country hungry?
- Why are people homeless?
- Failure to protect those who can’t even think of protecting themselves (teens, young women)
- Women who are prostituted and take advantage of
- The top 1% of the wealthiest people America own 90% of the wealth
- The prison system is screwed up financially with many injustices.
- Killing of innocent on the streets by guns
- Putting our kids in harms way of sexual predators
- Selfish Parents
- As parents, not equipping our children to live and keep God first.
- The attitude of injustice that people are only valued for what they can offer to society when they should be valued for being a human being.
It is clear that we need to be involved in social justice. Everyone knows that. It’s really a no-brainer right? But, if most of us are honest, there is a strong disconnect between what we say and what we do. Leonard Sweet writes in his book “Out of the Question, Into the Mystery”:
“Its so popular to talk about poor people, as Mother Teresa often lamented. But its not nearly as popular to talk to poor people. The issue is not on what principles of justice and freedom do you stand, but on what freedom roads are you traveling?”
Q: What are the Biggest Hindrances (read: excuses) to actually being involved in Social Justice:
- Ignorance: I just don’t know where there is injustice
- Not sure how to act, what to do
- Time: letting so much slip out of your hands
- Serving is inconvenient to my life
- Feeling like I don’t have anything to offer people.
- If you take it seriously, it changes the way you want to live.
- How much are you willing to give? How much time are you willing to give away?
- When you get into it, it changes your definition of personal crisis
Why many of us don’t get involved in social justice probably comes from a combination of many of these reasons. For me, I think the biggest one is that it will simply change the way that I want to live. It is often seen as an intrusion to my life. I was convicted of this selfish perspective yesterday morning.
Still, Questions remain: What do we do? How can we get involved?
Some thoughts:
- Keep it simple. As Shanna said, “Often, social justice means helping the person who God has put in front of me.”
- Check your finances. Think pray and act on how you handle your money God has given you.
- Get your hands dirty. Leonard Sweet states, “The poor don’t need money or resolutions so much as they need our relationship.”
- Do it in community. Check for ways your church is getting involved. At The Well, get connected with a Neighborhood Group or something that a Neighborhood Group is already involved with.
Jesus is perhaps the greatest example of mind and action. How many times do you see Him “have compassion” and then act (Matthew 9:36, Matthew 14:14, Matthew 15:32, Matthew 20:34, Mark 1:41). For Jesus, there is no such thing as compassion without action. I am pretty sure, when there is no action its just pity…
The simple fact is this: Worship and action cannot be separate. Let’s work hard to find ways to put feet to our faith. Let’s pray together and converse together on how we can be involved in being a blessing to our world…
Any more thoughts out there? Any suggestions? Comments? Questions? Add to this conversation in the comments section below…
Dan Benson said...
104/5/05 7:55 AM | Comment Link |
“- Failure to protect those who can’t even think of protecting themselves (teens, young women)”
Should add the unborn children.
bobbie said...
204/5/05 1:56 PM | Comment Link |
i think dispensational theology (the left behind folk), which i was raised with, is a major hindrance to social justice. many passages (beattitudes, james, etc) are written off to the ‘millenial kingdom’ and jesus couldn’t be serious to mean he really thinks the kingdom is ‘now’.
i honestly believed that nothing mattered except ’saving the lost’ - and everything else was liberal hogwash that clouded the real issues.
it shocks me now to read those passages and see how important the marginalized and downtrodden are to god. my views have taken a 180 degree turn. ministries like international justice mission http://www.ijm.org and world vision (and many others) are doing the work of christ far more than most churches.
‘the least of these’ were really important to jesus - i want to be able to point to some i was able to help when he asks me that question one day!
wood said...
304/5/05 8:48 PM | Comment Link |
social justice: wow i think the church should be in the for front of social justice,lets put our lives where our mouths are yeah we talk the talk but reaching out to people in need, the way CHRIST did that is deep .too many times the church sits by while the world moves into a deeper state of darkness.it is definanely a good topic to discuss as well as do.
wood said...
404/5/05 9:01 PM | Comment Link |
social justice:i feel the church community should be at the fore front of social justice but many times we talk about it and don’t actually do it.by it i mean step out of our comfort and into someone elses zone.i would love for us as a community to step up to the plate as far as social justice goes and get ourselves (myself included)dirty and love people the way Christ loves us. great topic to discuss and do keep it up.
wood said...
504/5/05 9:07 PM | Comment Link |
sorry that went though because i thought it didn’t go through my bad everybody,i said the samething twice but differently…..and that is definately a good topic.(p.s. talking is so much better then people can’t see i suck at spelling)
Ed C said...
604/7/05 3:55 AM | Comment Link |
todd,
great thoughts. I resonate with many of your reflections. In a number of churches I have experienced a profound disconnect with worship gatherings. What is happening when we get a bunch of people in the same room, sing the same songs, hear the same message, and then go home? I have always been the last guy out of church because I love the relationships.
I don’t think that church worship with bands, songs, and sermon are out, but I do think we need to branch out a bit. What would it look like to worship on the mission field? Just a thought.
Where I’m at is doing theological reflection on the mission field. My church just started a food pantry and I have been taking food all over the place in Doylestown to people in need. As I reach out I want to prayerfully reflect on God and the Bible. It’s new and I’m not good at it, but I find this context a more helpful place to reflect on God than say a seminary library.
And by the way, your comments about community being involved in serving are right on. Not only do we need each other, but we need the Christian organizations that provide help to the poor on a regular basis. I am amazed at how many groups exist that provide services in my area. It’s really easy to team up with them and work with them to help people. Part of our ministry is to connect people with the best services because we sure can’t provide much on our own. In addition, many of the poor in our area know how to work the system. They ride out one group and just hop on to another. It’s helpful to have someone with experience involved so that you are truly assisting people in moving forward and out of poverty and dependence. I have leaned heavily on a lady in our congregation who has a degree in social work. Despite all of my good intentions, the simple fact is that I don’t know the best way to help people, but that’s not an excuse to stay on the sidelines. I feel more like the kid they stick in left field for the last few innings of the baseball game. I’m not a starter yet, but I’m working on it.
Todd said...
704/7/05 5:01 PM | Comment Link |
thanks guys for your thoughts…its been fun thinking this stuff through with our community and i think over and over again we talk about how we “need to do more” but rarely do it. i think one of the problems is that our churches are not “Structured” (for lack of better word) to NATURALLY get invovled in social justice. usually, its “one more thing” to do…
we’re working on seeing how a church structure can help “social justice” happen naturally as part of community life. we’re still learning but its been great to see some of the ways our community is doing it as we share our lives and passions…
anyways, thanks for the convo - lets not just talk about it!
Kat said...
804/8/05 12:46 PM | Comment Link |
I believe that if we are true followers of Christ then social justice should
naturally emminate from our being. And perhaps, social justice is something we are practicing every day as we connect with all the people we work, school, and pray with. I should think that is how it works, because after all, the parents working every day to keep the roof over
their heads and food in their children’s bellies can’t be walking among the poor on a daily basis, dispency social justice, can they? Most of us in the world are so busy just trying to do the above that this must be the way God expects us to be dispensing social justice. You know, “grow where your planted.”
I wish I could figure out a way just to get people to come and pray with
some of us one night a week. But no one seems to have any interest in group prayer outside of Sunday service.
That passage in Amos was not about our “noise”, our religious gatherings, etc. it is about our hearts and our motivations behind our worship and coming together.
Create in us a pure heart, oh Lord, one that seeks after you.
wood said...
904/10/05 6:29 PM | Comment Link |
this is to kat my wife and i have been doing a pray community at our house every tuesday for the last year.i agree with you it is hard to gather people to pray but we need to do it and be faithful.if you would like to pray with us contact todd and he can tell you how to get ahold of nat(my wife) or myself. its great praying in community keep it up.
peace and love in Christ