God v2.0
I read Scobleizer, a Microsoft blogger, who usually has some cool things to say.
One of his recent posts was about the Fellowship Church in Silicon Valley, the 15th largest church in the US, or so the Germans would have us believe (good luck finding that stat in Google, because I didn't). So, by all means, go read the post and educate yourself.
Go on, I'll wait.
Okay, good, you've read it.
One, it's a handjob for Microsoft, but I expected no less. They used the right tools, yadda yadda, that's fine with me. Scoble loves to fawn over the 'MS Solutions', but kinda half-mentions Linux as what they use for their video, and barely gets the word Mac in the paragraph before running away screaming.
But that's not my point here. The point is the generalizing of church. The watered-down garbage for the unwashed masses. Well, nicely washed and groomed, looks like. Do you think you'd see a homeless man in that crowd? I don't think so. Hell, they probably charge admission.
Church to them is a rock concert. It's cheering and yelling, a crowd of fifteen thousand people. That is a lot of fucking people. I haven't been in a crowd that size in a long, long time. And when I did, I didn't necessarily enjoy it.
Of course, everyone loves a good show. But that's what it is, a show. Entertainment. I don't think I've ever seen such spectacle before. Christian churches have a competition it seems as to who-can-top-who, the lessening attention span of the audience and the feeble attempts to keep up with it.
I'm not even a 'Christian' anymore, so take that into consideration. I consider myself an atheist at this point, because I'd rather not say I'm agnostic--it's important to believe in something, whether it be spiritual or based in reason. Just pick a side already. Wishy-washy works for awhile, but there are few things and times in this life when you can truly take a stand and claim something as your own. Spirituality is like that. I think a lot of people like to ride the fence in case they're wrong. You know, "I burned in hell because I chose the wrong religion." I think hell is a fairytale, just like the boogeyman. Believe what you want.
I've seen 'Christian' people who are the biggest asshole prick self-absorbed losers imaginable. At the same time I've seen some of the most amazing people who happened to be Christians. The only thing wrong with Christianity is the Christians. It seems like a guy who said "be good to yourself and others" isn't exactly radical, or extraordinary. However, he was chosen from the many, many other folks claiming to do the exact same miracles at the same time and through bible compilation/editing and political maneuvering by the Roman Catholic church has found his way into god-like status. And that's cool, like I said, believe what you must to be good to yourself and others.
As a sidenote, I always thought WWJD (What would jesus do) crap was hilarious. What would he do? Um, probably give it to the poor instead of investing in overpriced t-shirts and jewelry to go toward the never-ending 'building fund' or some jeweler's back pocket.
Okay, back to my point, and to wrap this up: I feel that the larger a church gets, the more detached people become. There is a point you cross where all the faces become generic, interchangable, and the message begins to get hollow. The evangelists on TV, even when I was a devout believer, always seemed like cheap salesman.
'Christian music stars' always seem to force the spirituality. Creed was the best at not doing this. P.O.D is pretty good at it too, but their songs don't have the same quality. Not saying that Creed is quality exactly, but when you're comparing trash to cowshit, you have to choose one of them. Besides, Creed's first album wasn't that terrible, it was only later they got so full of themselves and began to really delve into mediocre-ville.
So when 'Christian music stars' get on the Fellowship Church stage, and begin using the same boring pop hooks and same cheesy, cringe-inducing bullshit slow songs that everyone else does, except with worse lyrics, it just seems like a farce. These people are here to make money. While 'God' may be a part of it, it is certainly not as big a factor as the money. If they made no money off of it, they'd go sit and watch someone else every Sunday, and go to work the rest of the week. This is their job, it's what they do.
I think churches are brilliant in their money-gaining abilities. I congratulate those who do good things with them. But I certainly do not doubt that there are people who are less than honest, whether they be Tammy Fay or some no-name preacher who buys a cadillac thanks to a generous congregation.
In other words you'd never find me within a hundred miles of that place. Unless of course I'm headed past it on the freeway, going towards other, less pushy forms of entertainment.
One of his recent posts was about the Fellowship Church in Silicon Valley, the 15th largest church in the US, or so the Germans would have us believe (good luck finding that stat in Google, because I didn't). So, by all means, go read the post and educate yourself.
Go on, I'll wait.
Okay, good, you've read it.
One, it's a handjob for Microsoft, but I expected no less. They used the right tools, yadda yadda, that's fine with me. Scoble loves to fawn over the 'MS Solutions', but kinda half-mentions Linux as what they use for their video, and barely gets the word Mac in the paragraph before running away screaming.
But that's not my point here. The point is the generalizing of church. The watered-down garbage for the unwashed masses. Well, nicely washed and groomed, looks like. Do you think you'd see a homeless man in that crowd? I don't think so. Hell, they probably charge admission.
Church to them is a rock concert. It's cheering and yelling, a crowd of fifteen thousand people. That is a lot of fucking people. I haven't been in a crowd that size in a long, long time. And when I did, I didn't necessarily enjoy it.
Of course, everyone loves a good show. But that's what it is, a show. Entertainment. I don't think I've ever seen such spectacle before. Christian churches have a competition it seems as to who-can-top-who, the lessening attention span of the audience and the feeble attempts to keep up with it.
I'm not even a 'Christian' anymore, so take that into consideration. I consider myself an atheist at this point, because I'd rather not say I'm agnostic--it's important to believe in something, whether it be spiritual or based in reason. Just pick a side already. Wishy-washy works for awhile, but there are few things and times in this life when you can truly take a stand and claim something as your own. Spirituality is like that. I think a lot of people like to ride the fence in case they're wrong. You know, "I burned in hell because I chose the wrong religion." I think hell is a fairytale, just like the boogeyman. Believe what you want.
I've seen 'Christian' people who are the biggest asshole prick self-absorbed losers imaginable. At the same time I've seen some of the most amazing people who happened to be Christians. The only thing wrong with Christianity is the Christians. It seems like a guy who said "be good to yourself and others" isn't exactly radical, or extraordinary. However, he was chosen from the many, many other folks claiming to do the exact same miracles at the same time and through bible compilation/editing and political maneuvering by the Roman Catholic church has found his way into god-like status. And that's cool, like I said, believe what you must to be good to yourself and others.
As a sidenote, I always thought WWJD (What would jesus do) crap was hilarious. What would he do? Um, probably give it to the poor instead of investing in overpriced t-shirts and jewelry to go toward the never-ending 'building fund' or some jeweler's back pocket.
Okay, back to my point, and to wrap this up: I feel that the larger a church gets, the more detached people become. There is a point you cross where all the faces become generic, interchangable, and the message begins to get hollow. The evangelists on TV, even when I was a devout believer, always seemed like cheap salesman.
'Christian music stars' always seem to force the spirituality. Creed was the best at not doing this. P.O.D is pretty good at it too, but their songs don't have the same quality. Not saying that Creed is quality exactly, but when you're comparing trash to cowshit, you have to choose one of them. Besides, Creed's first album wasn't that terrible, it was only later they got so full of themselves and began to really delve into mediocre-ville.
So when 'Christian music stars' get on the Fellowship Church stage, and begin using the same boring pop hooks and same cheesy, cringe-inducing bullshit slow songs that everyone else does, except with worse lyrics, it just seems like a farce. These people are here to make money. While 'God' may be a part of it, it is certainly not as big a factor as the money. If they made no money off of it, they'd go sit and watch someone else every Sunday, and go to work the rest of the week. This is their job, it's what they do.
I think churches are brilliant in their money-gaining abilities. I congratulate those who do good things with them. But I certainly do not doubt that there are people who are less than honest, whether they be Tammy Fay or some no-name preacher who buys a cadillac thanks to a generous congregation.
In other words you'd never find me within a hundred miles of that place. Unless of course I'm headed past it on the freeway, going towards other, less pushy forms of entertainment.
1 Comments:
Evan,
Well done post and great site...I've enjoyed reading through your pages.
You make a lot of good points in your response to Scoble's article. Let me offer some of my perspective on a couple of them.
First, your right that size is a big issue. The fact is that at a certain point (and it's different for everybody) size becomes much more of a negative than positive, which can actually discourage people from trying the church. The worship center in Grapevine (Dallas-Ft. Worth area) holds 4000+ people, and we have 5 services each weekend. We spend a huge amount of time focusing on small groups that meet in homes specifically because it can be easy to get lost in such a large group of people. We're also looking at starting remote campuses to give people a smaller church closer to their homes for the same reason.
Second, you mention watered-down sermons and a showbiz feel. Honestly, that was my assumption as I avoided trying FC for more than a year. I'm quite a skeptic myself and my view was that anything that popular couldn't be good. I expected to find what you describe and was dumbfounded when it was completely different. The messages are focused on applying unchanging Biblical truths to our everyday lives. The music is focused on worship and the message itself, sometimes through Christian music, sometimes not. The focus of the church is on reaching the lost and impacting lives in the here and now, and for eternity.
We do have high standards and believe everything we do (including music, speaking, sound, creativity, print, etc...) should be done with excellence, to the best of our ability. But we were committed to that when we were a church of 1,000 10 years ago meeting in a local high school; only the scale has changed.
I obviously don't pretend to speak of churches as a whole. Every church has flaws, FC as much as any. We want people to find a local church that is right for them, where they can get involved and make a difference in their community, and if that's a small, traditional church, we couldn't be happier. In our area, we have thousands of people who have never stepped foot in a church and when the finally do, wonder why they shouldn't find the same quality of presentation they find elsewhere in their lives.
Thanks again for your comments. Keep up the good work, and feel free to look me up if you're ever in the Dallas area and I'd be happy to show you around.
Brian Bailey
brianbailey@gmail.com
www.leaveitbehind.com
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