Sunday Morning Shuffle Your Buns

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All across America every Sunday morning, church goers who are no longer satisfied with the church they have been attending; who disagree with some decision leadership has made regarding the direction of said church; who feel their personal needs or family needs are no longer being met; or who have moved into a new neighborhood or new city will go church shopping. It’s the Sunday morning Shuffle Your Buns game of American Christianity. The procedure is not so different from any other shopping excursion they might embark on during the week — say, buying a new pair of pants, for example. Does this church reflect the current trends? Will it make them feel good about themselves? Will they look good in it? Does it fit their particular tastes (translation: do the majority of people there look like them, think like them, dress like them, believe like them)?

Churches all across America every Sunday morning, like so many clothing stores across America, seek to draw these shoppers in. We advertise our particular style with flashy post cards; we buy newspaper and radio ads; we erect signs with clever sayings near our driveways (some are more clever than others); we create printed literature that lists all the ways shoppers’ needs will be met if they decide to do their spiritual business with us. We design our worship services in such a way as to be “seeker sensitive.” We pay for demographic studies to learn about the make-up of the people in our neighborhood so we can know how to become attractive to them.

Admittedly, I am painting with a large brush. There are good reasons individuals and families decide to find new churches now and then. There are also good reasons different churches will resonate with individuals more than others at particular times in their lives. There is also validity to churches wanting to be culturally relevant. What person or church with any sense wants to be culturally irrelevant? It also makes sense for churches to want to understand the people in their neighborhoods. In fact, they are remiss if they don’t want to understand the people in their neighborhoods and know how to serve them.

What I’m wrestling with however, is the fact that most people who walk in the doors of our churches on Sunday mornings either already attend there or they’ve come from another church. How many individuals can you name that previously had no church background whatsoever, but wanted to find God so they woke up early one Sunday morning, cleaned themselves up, and headed to the nearest church? (Yes, admit it, they would feel like they had to clean themselves up first).

For all our efforts, for all the ways we can boast about church growth in particular congregations, it doesn’t seem like we are having much of a real impact in the North American landscape. What we’re really doing appears to be mostly shuffling around the buns of various already believers.

If we really want to be the church, maybe we should cancel church across America tomorrow. Instead of our usual meetings, perhaps we could send everyone out to the closest soccer fields to serve up free pancake breakfasts and hot coffee. (No, do NOT take tracts or church literature. Stop that!) Maybe a few groups of believers could head to areas where the homeless are and offer them some friendship and a bit of a refuge for the morning. Others could spend time cleaning, doing maintenance and home repairs in run down neighborhoods. Maybe others would want to spend a few hours planting trees or taking flea medication, pet food and toys to poorer families for their pets. It might be the most culturally relevant the church has ever been on Sunday morning. In fact, it might be the most church-like the church has been on a Sunday morning for a long time.

And the bun shuffling? Well, how awe-inspiring would it be to see every Christian set of buns across America doing some real shuffling for a day?

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