Jack Chinn was on board the U.S.S. Princeton when that new aircraft carrier was launched at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1942. For two and a half years, the ship was home to Chinn and several hundred other men. More than just a military vessel, the Princeton was also a small town. Naturally, the crew had a strong sense of community. Its citizenry included businessmen, dreamers, pastors, alcoholics, losers, cops, cons, Christians and pagans. Lifelong friendships were forged in that floating village.
On October 24, 1944, life in the small town called Princeton changed forever. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, a single bomb from a Japanese airplane hit the flight deck, exploded through the lower levels of the ship, and instantly killed many men. Within a few hours, the ship had slipped to the bottom of the sea, leaving hundreds of survivors adrift in an alien and dangerous environment. All of the familiar patterns of life were suddenly and irrevocably altered. The men had to develop new survival skills, adjust to new communal patterns, adapt new forms of communication (like waving articles of clothing at distant ships), and cope with new reasons, rhythms, and resources for living.
New communities formed in and around life rafts and floating debris. Men who had been antagonists, or perhaps never even met, were suddenly sharing a life-sustaining piece of the wooden flight deck. Men from very diverse operational units found themselves thrown together into the brand-new neighborhood of a life raft.
Chinn’s eyes dance and his face breaks into a large smile when he recalls, "First thing we did in our life raft was call a prayer meeting. We all began to cal on God. Some were repenting and others were just sobbin’ as they cried out to the Lord, a few just kinda mumbled. But, we were all sincere and determined to get holda’ God."
Chinn goes on to describe one particular shipmate. "Even ole’ Swede-he was the roughest, meanest, cussinest man on the ship and he said to the rest of us, ’Now, men, let’s all look right up at God and just pour our hearts out to Him. Now, I mean it, let’s all tell ’im we’re sorry for our sinnin’ and that we need help.’"
Today more than half a century later, Chinn remembers, "You know, I’ve been in a lotta church services and prayer meeting’s over the past seventy years. But the best service I ever attended was in that life raft in the South Pacific."
His story of that life-raft service begs one simple question. What church model was that, anyway?
The "Help! My Ship is Sunk"
Church Model
Where did the format-the liturgy-of the service in the life raft come from? Was that a seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven, permission-giving, twenty-first-century, or new-apostolic group? What course did "ole’ Swede" take to find out that he had a gift of teaching "the Body" how to pray?
Is it possible that one Japanese bomb may have led more people to Christ than many churches and evangelistic events do today?
Could it be that certain world catastrophes like September 11th, what is happening currently in the Middle East and even weather patterns are under God’s control? God revealed much about His activity in the earth when He asked Job,
Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, and caused the dawn to know its place; that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?
(Job 38:12, 13)
God knows how to motivate people to run into His house and into His arms. Through external pressure, setbacks and difficulties, people flock to a loving Creator for safety and sustenance. Charles Simpson observed how in Psalm 27. King David would seek God when he recognized that various "adversaries" and "evil-doers" were intent on his destruction (vv. 2,3 KVV). Although under the threat of enemies overtaking him, David suddenly proclaims:
One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life.
(Psalm 27:4 KJV)
What a contrast for many of us today. We often wring our hands, scratch our heads and stare at world events with perplexity. We wonder why things have jumped out of control. Yet, is God really wringing His hands about history-about us? Why do we assume that history is like a big bus lunging through crowded streets and playgrounds with a dead driver at the wheel? Do we truly believe that we serve One who is powerless in the face of out of control circumstances on earth?
So we see a world searching for meaning in life. I mean desperately seeking. The are looking for reality in various philosophies, religions, cults, psychics, palm readers, technologies and New Age beliefs. The harvest has begun.
However, the Church seems to be either threatened by, or ignorant of how significant these changing times are. Many in the Church are largely preoccupied with politics that separate us, special interest groups, anger, and trying to raise funds to pay for property and programs that have nothing to do with the harvest.
What happens because of this, is that many seekers eliminate the Church as a serious contender for being a life source. These seekers conclude that the Church does not care about them.
We seem to have lost our grip on reality. Jesus told the Pharisees of His day, "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!" Jesus essentially said to them and the Pharisees of every age, "You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!"
Come on. Guys, the Church is the last best hope for a society that can’t handle the truth. As a church we have become flawed in our ability to let God’s transformational power of truth change our lives.
Brian’s Song
Brian started out as a typical teenager. Born in Canton, Ohio, Brian’s father was a hard-working furniture salesman; the family went to church. But Brian’s lanky appearance and poor health made him and eventual target for teasing and mocking by schoolmates. Without his dad there as a coach and mentor, Brian had to face a barrage of ridicule and chastisement all alone.
When Brian’s father was home, he would tyrannize Brian when anything was wrong or out of order. Sometimes the only attention Brian received from his father was a belt slapped across his backside. Brian lived in fear of his father and felt that he was worthless and would never amount to anything.
In 1974, Brian’s parents enrolled him in a Christian School where he received years of religious instruction through Bible studies, movies and discussions on the impending "apocalypse." He was often afraid that the world would come to an end and we wouldn’t go to heaven. He was terrified by the idea of the Antichrist and the end of the world.
Brian often thought, What if I already have the mark of the beast? What if the Antichrist is inside of me?
It was more that he could handle. Not only was the going through puberty and all the questions and fears brought into life by those dynamics; now he had to cope with the weight of eschatological judgment and destruction. His Christian culture did a job on Brian about the "end-times." His nightmares were frequent and horrendous. To this day, Brian cannot sleep without the television on or some noise to reassure him.
Brian felt that he stood out from the other students; he didn’t respond to altar calls like the rest of his peers. He was afraid to stand in front of the whole Christian School and admit that he was morally and spiritually inferior to everyone else. The teachers were pressuring him to conform to their culture and beliefs. He was often scolded and sometimes considered blasphemous.
"I tried to fit into their idea of Christianity, to prove my connection with their beliefs, and all I received was punishment for it," he said. When he was cast as Jesus in a school play about the crucifixion, some students ripped off the loincloth Brian was wearing. Naked and humiliated, we was then chased and beaten in front of other students, too.
Brian developed very pronounced and intense opinions about Christians from those experiences. Today, he has nothing kind to say about them. He paints his face white and colors his lips black, accenting his long jet-black hair. Dark eye shadow sets surreal eyes deep into his face. His fishnet stockings and short shirt barely cover the scars of self-mutilation, a common practice among those that are emotionally tormented. Brian’s body piercings and strange tattoos finish his look of revenge. He wants to shock the Christians that forced their dogma and rules on him and never loved him.
Brian Warner of Canton, Ohio, grew up to be Marilyn Manson.
Now, at least, he feels accepted and has a sense of pride when he sings of his pain and hatred-acceptance and pride he never felt in the Church or in a Christian school.
"I want to become what adults fear the most!"
Tens of thousands of postmodern Gen-Xers can relate to Brian. These people feel unaccepted and forced into obeying rules from a culture that cares little for their fashion and tastes. So they work hard to shock Christians-the Church-the establishment.
"In many ways my desire is actually to be pure again and not dirtied by the world. But I felt it’s my duty to be as ugly and filthy as I am… so the audience can experience what I’ve experienced. It’s cathartic," Manson admits. -Details (Dec., 1996), n.p.
Walt Mueller, in his article on Manson in New Man magazine said, "Even Manson is reacting not to biblical Christianity, but to the distorted, Americanized version of Christianity common in today’s American churches." (Sept./Oct.1998).
How do we relate to Brian’s culture? How would Jesus connect with him?
God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Cor. 5:19)
In fact, the future is going to require the Church to humble herself, repent of our narcissism, and embrace the world of reconciliation. Let’s face it: God is not even counting full-blown sins, let alone tattoos and pierced body parts.
Why have we become so distracted from our purpose? What freak mutations of classic Christianity are we generating?
The "ILLUSIONS" of Church:
This is a changing era saturated by several unhealthy perceptions-illusions-that have squelched the true nature of church and worship.
1. The Church as a Building or Event.
Christians often identify the Church as being a physical structure or a tangible event rather than a spiritual structure focused on loving God and one’s neighbor. This preoccupation with the physical realm is a materialistic assumption-or an illusion-rooted in the past with no credibility in a post-materialistic future.
Greek word for church = ekklesia
· Means "and assembly" or "gathering of people."
His intent was that now, through the church [ekklesia], the manifold wisdom of God should be made know to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.
(Eph. 3:10 NIV)
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
(1 Cor. 12:12,13)
Maybe God is trying to take us back to a time when people just talked to one another; when they spoke through the simple, God-given means of words, facial expressions and posture that communicated accurately what was on their hearts.
2. The Search for the "RIGHT" Church Model.
One of the reasons that we know that we are living in a declining era is because we are so saturated by so many different church models and paradigms; we have seeker-driven churches, purpose-driven churches, permissive churches, resurrected churches, and so on.
Brian D. McLaren reminds us that, "The most celebrated and notoriously successful models as I write-Bill Hybels, Rick Warren an John Maxwell for example-became successful through bold innovation and creative synthesis, not through unthinking imitation… truly successful models earned their success the old-fashioned way-through pain, tears, endurance, mistakes, and prayer… If you imitate them as successful models, whatever kind of success you get probably won’t be the kind they got."
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body… if the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
(1 Cor. 12:14-15, 17, 20)
There is a reason that Jack Chinn remembers the service in the life raft as the best he ever attended; God is perfectly capable of imparting really good models for church and worship!
3. External Circumstances over Eternal Truths.
Those who sail the sea are sensitive to the weather. Only a foolish sailor ignores the signs around him. A wise sailor takes heed to the weather patterns and learns to keep course despite what is going on around them.
Too often we as churches are like a sailing ship that is governed by our circumstances, and the currents of the day. We become obsessed with the wind. We pray against the social issue winds, we grow sentimental about the calm winds and waters of "the old days," we try to make every breeze that passes our way into some sort of spiritual lesson.
We also take our bearings from the wind of events and not from our compass-God’s truth and presence-that always points true north.
[Jesus speaking] "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31, 32)
Then, even if I am delayed, you will know how to live in the family of God. That family is the church of the living God, the support and foundation of the truth. (1 Tim. 3:15 NCV)
4. Enculturation Mistaken for Purity.
As we disconnect with God’s presence, we are creating spiritual ghettos in the contemporary Church. This self-righteous attitude creates the illusion that the Church is not part of society and is, somehow, free from the sin of the world.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2 NIV)
We feel threatened and challenged by the real world. We are often in our own little world like the crew members of an airliner; we have no idea what is going on in the lives of passengers who briefly occupy the seats (pews) in our isolated little world. We do not "mix" with them out of fear of contamination. We are just "company men," loyal to this illusion of "purity" and forgetting that we exist to serve the passengers and help them connect with their destination and purpose.
Because of this self-righteousness, we so often ignore the call of God to touch the suffering, the sinful, the poor and the diseased.
You just need to watch any Christian television and it is obvious that our attitudes, words, dress, and ideas are outdated and even dangerous. It represents a crystallized, antiquated, ineffective, even humorous display of a way of life that has not existed in years. (Movie with Brandon Fraser).
Normal people may want to occasionally visit a museum; they surely do not want to live there! Seekers today want reality; they don’t want to sit and stare at a taxidermy of a prehistoric beast. Seekers are hungry. They want some answers, and the seeker wants God. Often all we have to offer them is a program, a song list, or best sermon of the week.
To those who are weak, I became weak so I could win the weak. I have become all things to all people so I could save some of them in any way possible. I do all this because of the Good News and so I can share in its blessings.
(1 Cor. 9:22-23 NCV)
5. Superficiality.
For various reasons, the Church is too often a haven of unreality. I think we’ve all grown weary of plastic smiles, empty questions, and dishonest responses.
Someone says, "How are you doing?" Our response is: "Great, great; filled with faith and power"-the way religion teaches us to say. Perhaps we should be honest: "My heart is broken, I’m lonely, and I don’t think I can tolerate my boss, my kids, or you for another minute."
If we never deal with the real issues, we will never grow, and others will never be attracted to our Christian lives.
They were amazed at his teaching, for he taught as one who had real authority-quite unlike the teachers of religious law. (Mark 1:22 NLT)
Sally Morgenthaler wrote in her book, Worship Evangelism, "Many people have had enough. They have had their fill of superficial, human-centered services, and they simply are not going to take it anymore. Some may still come to church to hear comedy routines and watch "the show," but increasing numbers do not-they come to meet with God."
And Chuck Lofy says, "When the church is no longer transparent to the divine and people don’t feel the presence of God, they will drift…"
They offer superficial treatments for my people’s mortal wound. They give assurances of peace when all is war. Are they ashamed when they do these disgusting things? No, not at all-they don’t even blush! (Jer. 8:11 NLT)
It seems to me that much of the Church is hungry for some meat and potatoes. Youth do not want to be babysat, adults want some definite answers, and the seeker wants God. People are increasingly hungry for the presence of God. Where is God in our services? Do we give him a hologram every morning? How can we connect better with the presence of Jesus?
NO Sense of Announcement from God;
NO Sense of Anointing by God.
If the Church carries no announcement and operates with no anointing, it is useless. But rather than dwell on what is wrong, let’s catch glimpses of a more glorious future.
It is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. (Romans 13:11, 12)
Do you believe the night is almost gone and a new era is dawning? I believe that is nearer than many of us believe.
There are those today who are awakening to the reality that the church of the dying age cannot be fixed. They are moving beyond traditionalism and sentimentality.
The fact remains that the Church is Christ’s Bride, His love and delight. He is returning for her. He is not returning for an institution, fellowships, buildings, societies, ministries and events we often call the Church.
It is time for us to realize that the temporal, cultural institution we call the Church is on a collision course with reality. But an equally sure (and far more glorious) reality is that the eternal Church will "morph" into new shapes and patterns and will connect in new ways with the needs of the world for which Christ died.
