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Who
hopes for what he already has?
But
if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. — Romans
8:24c-25, NIV
Dear
Saints:
I
came across an article recently. It was in one of my favorite magazines—Christianity
Today.
Andy Crouch was its author, and the title was Stonewashed
Worship.
Its premise was that, right in line with the rest of culture, our
churches are striving to be "authentic" communities of faith.
The
problem, as he says in his article, is that we "Americans are
impatient. We'd like our church authentic, and we'd like it
authentic when we first put it on"—kind of like that pair
of stonewashed blue jeans we buy at the store that has already been
made "authentic" for us. There was a time, he says,
when the denim jeans made by Levi Strauss and Co. were so heavy and
stiff they had to be washed several times before they would become
wearable. Months later they were still turning the water blue.
But,
along the way, some creative employee got the idea that the company
could pre-wash its jeans along with a few rocks so that when they hit
the store shelves they had that authentic appearance that would have,
otherwise, taken months to achieve at home. Such imitations may
look good—but they're not authentic. They appear to be the
real thing, but they're not.
Take
Joe's Crab Shack restaurants, for instance. They project the
image of being old, run-down dives, when in fact they've been newly
constructed in just a few short months. Or, consider the early
American rural ambiance one experiences when entering a Cracker
Barrel Old Country Store. On its wall hang hundreds of
memorabilia from days gone by which, says Crouch, have been
"lovingly collected and restored to a suitably worn
appearance. Each one has a bar code."
We
tend to do the same with church. We long for an authentic
church, yet waiting is difficult. Those original Levi jeans had
to undergo a number of washes before they could be worn. So,
too, if a congregation is to discover and carry out the purpose for
which God has made it—it will take time. Disciples are
made—not born. If we want to have an authentic church,
then we will want to cultivate patience. An old adage says,
"Good things come to hose who wait."
God,
grant us the gift of patience. Amen.
Grace
and peace,
Pastor
Larry |
