Chesterton: acceptable ideas

Whatever else is true, it is emphatically not true that the ideas of Jesus of Nazareth were suitable to His time, but no longer suitable to our time. Exactly how suitable they were to His time is perhaps suggested in the end of His story.

Pleasing people the wrong way

To give the whole store away to match what this year's market says the unchurched want, is to have the people who know least about the Christian faith determine most about its expression.

This writer fears that we are on the verge of seeing happen what happened in the 1950s to mainstream Protestant churches: they retooled for people who were casually attracted and liked big parking lots, spectacle, and low demands; and people left as easily as they came. You can see that I lean toward the search for the dynamisms in the longer-pull worship traditions and against the emerging market orientation. But I am never cocksure abut this and try to listen.

Martin E Marty, quoted in Dawn Reaching Out... p258

Fickleness

31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

“‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’

33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”

Luke 7:31-35

Jesus warns us not to dance to the tunes of our generation. This isn't, surely, to prevent either relevancy in ministry and outreach, nor legitimate contextualisation of the gospel. But it is a warning against absorbing contemporary sensibilities too deeply.

For example, a church can survey its area and gain a lot of information; some of that information might change the way the church conducts itself when unnecessary obstructions are discovered that have been preventing effective ministry. There is hardly anything unBiblical about putting in new lighting if you discover that local people think your dingy church has the atmosphere of a mortuary (although there might be other reasons for this as well).

But to try to construct a church that fits in with cultural expectations, which removes all offense, which tries to give people the kind of church they can accept, is fatal. One reason is given here: people can be fickle, and disingenuously so. They are like children who cry out "Dance for happiness!" and when one does they shout "No! Mourn!" and so it goes on.

Or as Jesus goes on to say in vv33&34, John came along and was rejected: "he's so austere, hanging around in the desert like a fanatic, he's got a demon! Thanks, but we'll wait for someone more normal". So Jesus comes along and the response is "Look he stuffs himself, he's a drunkard, he goes to parties with weirdos! Thanks, but we'll wait for someone who's more..."

And so on. The underlying dynamic is not one of seeking a leader who matches God's criteria, but of inventing, deleting, rethinking criteria in order to make sure that no one ever fulfils it - because the deepest dynamic is: "I don't want anyone to be Boss of my life".

How many times will a person who calls in their locality to advertise their church get the response "Well, I prefer the Salvation Army, they do so many good things", implying of course that your church does not match their high criteria so they cannot possibly attend. I maintain the only time anyone says this is when there is no Salvation Army base for at least 10 miles. If there was one across the street they would say they preferred the Methodists or Elvis worship or Scientology. Because their true motivation is to avoid God.

Which brings us back to building a church in the image of society: it's pointless. Because if the underlying imperative is avoiding the Lordship of Christ then, as soon as you have made a service which matches their preference, then their preference will change.

It is best to learn to communicate, remove uneccesary obstructions and be faithful to the gospel. Because in the end that is what works (v35).

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