Why do churches turn into country clubs?

Even though my progressive, non-fundamental Christian church is attended by a good number of new-age, non-theists mixed in with the more traditional folks, it amazes me how churchgoers lose sight of the reason why they attend church in the first place. Last time I checked, making a commitment to attend a house of worship and be a part of a religious community usually means committing to walk a spiritual path. And committing to walk a spiritual path means living, acting, and thinking in all those feel-good ways that make us better people. In a world that is filled with pain, fighting, and oppression, church should be the one place we can go, to not only feel safe, but to practice expanding our capacity for understanding and compassion.

Members of these mid-size, neighbourhood churches naturally organize lots of fun extracurricular activities…like potlucks and rummage sales and choirs and card parties.  But over time, what seems to happen is that people participate in these social events without any element of spiritual responsibility and the church becomes akin to a country club! (Perhaps I’m naïve in thinking that everyone has come to church for spiritual progression and maybe there are many who are simply there for the weekly card party.)

Whatever brought them to church, people sadly forget that first and foremost, this is the place where they are supposed to pray and meditate and constantly dig deeper to know themselves better. Instead, the church becomes a hotbed of gossip, mistrust, and backstabbing. Various dramas, factions and mini-wars break out that are microcosms of all that is wrong in the world.

I remember Bruce McLeod once making the point that prayer is really about listening for God. I can’t remember his exact words, but it seemed to me that his point was to be wary of intercessionary-style prayer intended to change the way other people are acting. The point being that it is our responsibility as so-called spiritual or religious people, to listen for the voice of reason (non-ego) within us that is our truest nature–compassion, love, understanding–and to consider how to change the way we are acting (or reacting).

We spend a lot of time and energy at my church talking about how to attract “the younger generation” to church. How to keep the church alive. We come up with lots of great ideas, new programs, hip branding. The problem is, until we get our shit together as individuals and as representatives of a spiritual community, who would want to hang out with us?

As an example of how wonderfully explicit church can be in this lesson (which never happens often enough for me in a Christian church), here is one of my favourite sung prayers:

God be in my head
And in my understanding
God be in my eyes
And in my looking
God be in my mouth
And in my speaking
God be in my heart
And in my thinking
God be at my end
And at my departing.

H. Walford Davies - click for a nice video

Marianne

If you’re into spiritual studies and you’ve never heard of Marianne Williamson, read on because you should check out this amazing spiritual guru. Marianne’s been on the book-writing and speaker circuit consistently since the early 80’s. Back then I lived in New York City, and she used to speak at the Town Hall theatre every month. Me and some co-workers at my night job would jump on the subway over our dinner break and rush downtown to catch as much as we could of her lecture. Yes, she’s now become pretty commercial and she’s one of “Oprah’s Friends,” but the real treat is listening to Marianne speak. For the past 30 or 40 years, she’s been preaching spiritual concepts from A Course in Miracles – an inspiring and radical book about dissolving the spiritual ego, unconditional love, and universal peace. Marianne has an incredible energy when she lectures. She never refers to any speaking notes and can easily evangelize on The Course non-stop for 60 or 90 minutes straight. When she takes questions from the audience or you hear her on radio Q&A shows, she tells it like it is and cuts right through a person’s ego nonsense. Check out Marianne’s web site to see if she is lecturing near you or you can also hear her on XM radio at different times throughout the day and Sunday mornings from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. (eastern) — C

Blood Boil

I was watching myself get upset over something my partner did this week and I could see that every time I replayed the scene of his transgression, I got more emotional. It made me think of the expression, “makes my blood boil.” That’s literally what it feels like. A kind of electrical wave pulsing through my system that makes me breath a bit faster, pulse speeds up, and a little angry ego-man forms and rises up in the pot of my boiling blood. But then I realized that liquid only boils when heat is applied to it. The blood doesn’t boil on its own. A dial got turned and started the electrical current. The heat spark was the scene replaying over and over in my mind until the element got hot enough to reach the boiling point. Even if I wanted to turn it off, my ego was there saying, “No, no, don’t turn it off, it feels great! He’s the one who turned it on!”  But I know it’s not true. No one has that degree of control unless I give them permission. There’s a split second moment after someone does something that I’m faced with a crucial choice. I can play the victim–let the heat rise and say it was their hand on the dial–or face the truth and admit to myself that it is always my own hand. –C