I read this today on a Linkedin feed and I nearly spewed my coffee:
Church goals must be continually repeated and reinforced. Once isn’t enough. People forget. To outperform you must overinform.
I have questions:
- Who ever said the church needs “goals“? Seriously!? The church has adopted business language and has swallowed it hook line and sinker. The fisherman’s intentions are not good.
- Is “must” high on your list of personal motivators?
- When your church uses words like “repeat“, does the word “brainwash” ever come to mind, if you have one?
- Are your own inclinations so wayward and wrong that you continually have to hear an opposing message repeated over and over again to get you back on the church’s track? Maybe you are like a beagle who can’t help but perpetually run after new scents and must be leashed, caged or kennelled.
- If your church says that they are going to “reinforce” an idea over and over again, repetitiously, does this not conjure up images of the Nazi youth, another very visionary religious movement?
- If your church has to tell you something over and over again because “once isn’t enough” because “you will forget“, do you hear it implicitly saying, “Because you’re stupid“?
- Why will you “forget“? Have you ever in your life forgotten something that is centrally important to you?
- If you are a part of a church who’s agenda is to “outperform“, who are you competing against? Other churches? Shame on you! Yourself? If it is yourself that you are outperforming, what’s wrong with yourself right now that it needs to be outperformed? Who are you giving permission to continually tell you that you need to outperform yourself? Do you hate yourself that much?
- Doesn’t the bible have something to say about our obsession with competition and performance?
- If any organization tells you upon joining that you will be overinformed, will you still sign up? Are you going to willingly subject yourself to overinformation, endless repetition, perpetual reinforcement and the constant call to outperform? Are you willingly going to subject yourself to the constant reminder that you’re forgetful?
Yes, I have intentionally neglected the purpose of the church goals. Why? Because no matter how noble the goals, the means to achieving them are inhumane. Or maybe you believe the end does justify the means?
This is the kind of visionary thinking I abhor.
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My name is David Hayward, and I am the nakedpastor. I am a graffiti artist on the walls of religion.
NP, I totally forgot about that post! I’ll have a looksee.
If you remove the word “church” from the words “church goals”, the rest sounds alot like a quote from Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.
Cathy W:
How do you know I haven’t already been on the journey so many Christians are on? You don’t know me or my own experiences in church. I think maybe you are a little erroneous.
I know a few of the thousand upon thousands of Christians who have exited church, one of them being my husband.
You may agree or disagree but I feel that you haven’t validated my experience and you are negating my views and opinions.
I don’t think it’s fare to generalise when talking about church. Who or what do we sometimes have a problem with? Is it everyone in the whole church, or the Sunday morning service, or the apathy, or the lack of prayer support when we’re in enemy terrirtory, or no response for help with the youth outreach, or seeing no change after a couple years, or the judgments that goes on? My list can go on too.
My comment to David’s post was a reminder to myself that my current church are my family and it’s OK that they don’t always get it right. It wasn’t meant to offend, correct or diminsh other Christian’s experiences with church.
Tanya, begging your pardon.
Let me re-state. Your tone is coming across as a bit preachy and judgmental of others who do not feel as you do. I find that a bit off-putting and do not like it.
)
if i may interject: sometimes it is not what is being said as much as how it is being said. often, when we dissect the message and separate the emotions from the words, we can appreciate it more. we all communicate from our own point of view. it can’t be helped. and our own point of view is almost always colored by our emotions. i think this is important to remember when we are having a discussion.
Hey Cathy,
I feel misunderstood that you’ve interpreted what I have written as preachy and judgmental. It wasn’t directed ‘at’ anyone. It was just a comment on how ‘I’ feel about church in this present moment. It’s OK to have a different opinion.
And, I’d just like to say, you are loved!
DH, I think there is healthy universal vision that we can all generally agree upon and move towards (empathy, charity, reconciliation, a forgiving heart, the primacy of love, peacemaking, generosity, etc.). What I hear you saying is that, when vision becomes focused inward on a particular local tribe, it loses this sense of a common purpose shared with all humanity. (?)
If the vision of a local Jesus community remains universal towards all humanity, I think that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s the ONLY thing worth gathering for? Myopic / inward focused vision is probably the reason there are 30,000 sub-denominations of Christianity on the planet. That’s 30,000 reasons I’ve given up on religious tribalism.
I’m looking forward to your book.
yes john, i think i can agree with what you wrote. and i do need to work on that book!