A religion that feels like a religion

I want to share a post about the church from Katie, whose blog is called Quiet Garden, because I think that she has touched on some things that I felt when leaving Churches of Christ and searching for something else. I remember observing the Orthodox Jews in my Boston neighborhood and longing for a religion that felt like a religion. The funny thing is that although my felt need was for a different feeling, I've found that being in a church that uses a structured liturgy has freed me from needing to feel like worshiping. The focus isn't on what I feel, but instead it is on Christ. By contrast, sitting through a Church of Christ service feels like sitting through a city council meeting with a focus on the guy in the suit.

(As a side note I have to say that I don't mean to totally disparage Churches of Christ. I'm trying to describe what the difference has seemed like to me, but in the meantime I'm a bit afraid that I'm coming across like an ungrateful daughter who humiliates her parents for their failings in public. I owe much to my upbringing amoungst some very spiritual people in Churches of Christ.)

Anyway, Katie has this to say in her blog post:

"[S]omeone who has acted on the impulse to visit a church might actually prefer to find a distinctive experience, unlike what they find in other venues. If I visited Europe, I know how disappointed I would be to find that it had Americanized itself in an attempt to make me feel at home."

Also a quote that she came across in a Christianity Today article resonated with me:

Many 20- and 30-something evangelicals are uneasy and alienated in mall-like church environments; high-energy, entertainment-oriented worship; and boomer-era ministry strategies and structures modeled on the business world. Increasingly, they are asking just how these culturally camouflaged churches can help them rise above the values of the consumerist world around them. (Emphasis mine)

I've italicized "boomer-era ministry strategies and structures modeled on the business world" because these are undesirable things that are also, I think, a part of the leadership structure in my new church home. There seems to be so much of an emphasis on numerical growth without discipleship or sacrifice. I haven't visited a church in all of my wandering where this has not been the prevailing theme. I remember when I was in Churches of Christ a phrase that would often work its way into the prayers was "Lord, please help us to grow spiritually and numerically." While those two things may sometimes go together, very often they don't and we should be prepared for that. Growing spiritually may mean, for some churches, losing numerically as those who were just using church as a cheap substitute for a country club pick up and go. Are we prepared, if that is the case? Willow Creek, the huge prototypical mega church, has said recently that they screwed up when they equated getting lots of people to lots of programs with spiritual growth and yet so many churches are following in their footsteps and equating more programs and more backsides in the pew with discipleship.

So I guess that I'm saying that my church move has salved my desire for worship that is ancient and beautiful and transcendent but it hasn't relieved me of the yearning for a faith that eschews our culture's focus on all things that purport to be "bigger" and "more" while lacking substance.

I'm starting to ramble at this point so just go read what Katie had to say and maybe come back and let me know what you think.