I don't know about you, but for me church has changed! I remember going to church as a kid and it being something special. I would dress up, and by that I mean putting on my three piece suit with a clip-on tie and head out the door with my mom. (My suits were always hand-me-downs! My favorite was my pink suit. :) ) I remember sitting in Sunday School and listening to stuff I didn't understand...all of it lecture based and then heading to 'big church' to sit with next to my mom. We would sing a few songs from 'the book' and then take communion. I always like to sing, but not so anyone could hear for fear of embarrassment. I really couln't tell you much about any sermon I ever heard in church. I couldn't even tell you one sermon text, or topic either...
Today, I find myself as the preacher who prepares and spends much time thinking and praying about 25-35 minutes I will share on Sunday mornings. At times I think back to those childhood days and getting nothing, and I think/pray to God..."Is there really any true impact?" I don't dress up anymore, and by that I mean no suit and tie! I feel not that I should relax in church, but that my daily/weekly life should match my Sunday mask! So I decide that my appearance has nothing to do with my relationship with God. But at the same time I don't want to be a slob, because I don't think my daily life is slob-ish!
As a preacher, I also want to create a sense of change of what church was as a kid, to what I believe should impact my life and those around me. I think the atmosphere should be about living in the reality of the presence of an incredibly HOLY GOD! (That was a mouthful! - grammatical people - give me a break, please!) Yet, I do see this problem within the church today. A problem with making my life count for Jesus' sake. It seems to me that something hasn't just gone wrong, but that believers must not fully, totally, truly believe. Obviously, if we did our commitment level would be tremendously different. But it's not. Why? Maybe, we have created too much of a 'buddy god', instead of an omniscient (all-knowing) God. Maybe we have conjured up a soft god, instead of an omnipotent (all-powerful) God. Maybe we have thought of a temporary god, instead of an omnipresent (all-present/everywhere) God. When I see these areas we have slipped from, I understand why the generation before me held or hold on so tightly to 'its church'.
However, I don't think that we should keep a system that just 'functioned' for the sake of having something functional! I believe also that what has happened in the churches isn't because we walked away from the way 'our parents did it', but I think it was set to happen because we 'did church' because it was a habit, not about a holy relational God...
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