Monday, September 20, 2010

Cutting edge churches

I walked into a big ribbon cutting at our local hospital the other day. New cancer unit? Nope. New pediatric wing? Nope. New diagnostic equipment? Nope. Coffee bar. I understand profit. Nothing wrong with that.

So, yesterday guy in my church who works for a coffee servicing company, tells me about a nearby church whose monthly coffee bill is $2,000 and another’s that is $500. While I understand that cutting edge churches must have coffee bars just like music ministers, uh, worship leaders, must have goatees, I do wonder what the Lord thinks about formalizing a drug addiction in the church budget. Two thou a month could start a church somewhere...

I visit a couple who has visited our church and they explain why the hottest church around wasn’t for them. Seems it was the pain inflicted by the music. The volume. The decibels. If everyone can hear it, why jack the noise level up above that? Seems Elijah called for more volume on Mt. Carmel. Maybe that’s the principle behind it.

Guy came by the church wanting to start a cutting edge church in our area. He was looking for support and presented a budget that was higher than most church budgets in the association and explained that he would need a month’s vacation when he moved to the field so he could get his family settled. Huh?

OK, so I’m a renegade and a curmudgeon and whaddaIknow about cutting edge churches? Not much, I suppose.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Visited one of the cutting edge churches last week and here were the words in one of their songs:

"When Heaven came down to earth it was like a big, wet sloppy kiss."

Enough of that for me. I'll never darken the door of that church again.

foxofbama said...

I remember SC Waldrep in 1964, about an 80 year old man, was against showing a movie in the church produced by the Foreign Mission board cause he didn't think the church was a place for motion pictures.
But what you're talking about is different and I'm on your side.
One of the features of worship is the timelessness of congregational singing. To join in and sing a song that you know your ancestry coulda been singing at least 300 years back, is a different experience from singing something that got gutted out two years ago from some Disciple who used to drop Acid at a Rush Concert.
No offense to Rush, I saw their documentary not long ago, and liked it.
My point is if it came between a garish worship service and some soul singing Doc Watson's The Lone Pilgrim, I'm with you fellas.
Even Annie Dillard said she could sing with fundamentalists; but she wasn't talking about the big wet Sloppy kiss song Anon invoked above.
On this one Doctor Thornton, I'm in 97.2 agreement with you.
Take a look at what JPierce said about Al Mohler's latest revelation. Love to see your effort on that here at your Home Field.

Norm said...

William: ... why the hottest church around wasn’t for them.

Norm: Nor are many baptist churches, cutting- or non-cutting edge, for some, but what choice do said people have and remain baptist in most towns?

Some like to enter a church on Sunday morning in which the environment is conducive to prayer and meditation instead of witnessing the next round of hugs, conversations, and football scores. Not that the latter are not important, mind you, but are there no priorities in some contexts?

When was the last time a pastor spoke from the pulpit to encourage the people to enter the congregation prayerfully? Now that would be cutting-edge.

David Montoya said...

william, you must watch this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys4Nx0rNlAM

William said...

In my zip code there are three SBC churches, three independent Baptist churches, one other Baptist church, one non-denominational, evangelical-somewhat pentecostal church, one Presbyterian, one United Methodist, a couple that are so far under the radar I don't know what they are, one Church of Christ.

We're pretty churched up but I don't think any are meditative, quiet worship churches.

We have a free coffee table and our coffee bill is zero because the coffee guy gets to give away some return from when a business drops his service.

Norm said...

William: … Baptist … non-denominational … pentecostal … Presbyterian … United Methodist … couple that are so far under the radar … Church of Christ … I don't think any are meditative, quiet worship churches.

Norm: And the concern is, instead, about the cost of coffee?

Anonymous said...

If you think the music is weak you should hear the pathetic watered down preaching in these churches. You never heard any substance but a lot of feel-good psychobabble.

foxofbama said...

Quick Tip:

Howell Scott blog Fromlaw2Grace has outstanding blog up this morning "SBC taskforce misreads its Mandate"