Church Voices

4 Responses to “I Saw This Written in all Seriousness…..”

1. Tom Gilson Says:
   September 12th, 2005 at 11:16 am

   What’s so confusing about this? It’s a church that’s intended to be attractive to people who don’t see themselves as the church type. I haven’t seen the source of the slogan, so there’s no telling how true they are to being an authentic church or how successful they are in accomplishing their slogan. But what it means is not that unclear.

2. Tim Reed Says:
   September 13th, 2005 at 4:11 am

   SO what happens when people who don’t do church start doing church? Do they restate their slogan as “a church for people who do church who didn’t used to do church”.

   Its a self defeating proposition. Once someone begins to do church, they no longer are someone who doesn’t do church, and so there is no such thing as a church for people who don’t do church. Just a church for people who didn’t used to do church. Which every church is.

3. mandy Says:
   September 13th, 2005 at 9:55 am

   Tom, how is one an “authentic church?” I would be very careful judging one church over another, even if their ministry includes those who do “do church.”

   God have mercy on us.

4. Tom Gilson Says:
   September 13th, 2005 at 11:25 am

   Well, of course Tim is right in saying the slogan, taken seriously and to its logical conclusion, is nonsensical.

   My take on it, though, was that it was communication intended for an unchurched audience that would view the slogan differently, and that would probably understand exactly what it was trying to say. To state it analytically, I think this unchurched audience would interpret “doing church” (as in the slogan) as “conducting church affairs in a ritualistic and/or formalistic, institutional manner reminiscent of what I may have experienced directly or indirectly in previous contacts with church.”

   In other words, this church is claiming to be a church for people who don’t want to associate with church in its popular stereotyped, dry and institutionalized form. (I am not myself affirming that stereotype, but I do recognize it exists among many unchurched.)

   Mandy, I hesitated before using that word “authentic.” I didn’t want to write a long description of what a genuine, Christ-following, New Testament church might be like, since an accurate blanket description is so hard to come up with. One implication of what you’re saying, couple with what I just wrote in the previous paragraph, is that some churches stereotyped as ritualistic or institutional actually have a great deal of the life of Christ in them.

   Anyway, I chose a shorthand word for genuine church life (and I’m not sure that’s a good term for it either, but I hope you get my point). If you think there’s a better description for it, I’m quite sure you’re right.

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