Who are we saving it for?

Once upon a time, I know this because my mother told me, women used to take showers and after they had washed their hair, they would put curlers in. Then they would put on their clothing and go out to buy the groceries, pick up the laundry, go to the library, and generally run their errands. All the while the curlers stayed in the hair. My mom used to say about this situation, "I wonder who they are saving it for?".

I didn't really understand her point. I was a kid after all, and my deal was hoping she would buy a barrel of monkeys, or color forms or some other inexpensive form of entertainment and leave my brother and I in the car while she bought groceries. I am fairly sure this was way before either of us was in school. These days one would be arrested for this. Anyway, I thought all adults were somewhat odd looking and whether there was stuff in their hair didn't seem to matter much one way or another.

My mother felt differently. Going out so all of the town could see you in your curlers didn't make up for having nice hair at dinner for a few guests. I will have to admit that now that I am a grown up, I will have to say I concur. It doesn't really seem sensible. In fact the only way for this economy to make sense is to only value the opinions of the small group who you are having for dinner. That means the the vast majority of the people you encounter you have no value for at all. Kind of frightening when you say it that way.

That same kind of frightening vision has overtaken the church. Have you ever stopped to wonder who exactly we are saving it for? Who is it we are cleaning up to entertain? Our neighbors, the people in the grocery store, the library? I don't think so. Some of the people in the neighborhood don't even know we exist. Pastors seem to have no burning desire to share the good news, many who don't even see this as their job. We have churches full of nice people who do nice things but don't wish to be too religious and don't think it's any ones business how they live. We like to keep the walls high and the crowd select. We want the right kind of people to come to worship, we need to keep the building in good shape, you know.

Recently I attended a training event for small churches where we discussed how we could do small church better. The workshop leader invited people to say the things in worship they found distracting. I suspect he meant music done poorly, responses that were meaningless, sermons that weren't well researched and delivered painfully. Instead people said they didn't like kids in worship because they got up to go to the bathroom, or were noisy. They didn't like people who coughed or sneezed or made it hard for them to hear. I finally said, apparently the biggest obstacle we have in worship is that we let other people come. I think that while there were some chuckles, there were people who thought I was being serious and agreed. We all agree we are in decline but our answer is we need to keep out those annoying outsiders. People, who are we saving it for?

Our base is declining, it is elderly and it no longer can reproduce to sustain itself. The youth are moving on. They have no loyalty to support an institution that finds them an inconvenience at best. The financial support is also declining and monies that used to find their way to the collection are finding homes elsewhere. There is much anger and frustration over budgets being underfunded and people's dream of coasting into retirement dashed, but they are still wearing their curlers in public and valuing only the small group of people they will have dinner with later. I guess if we are saving it for ourselves I have to wonder why we aren't enjoying it more.

Who are we saving it for? Its time for us, all of us, to decide if we are in the disciple making business, or in the self preservation business. We have been in care taking mode for much too long. It's time to throw open the doors and invited the community in again. This is a party for everyone. Lets get the curlers out of of hair and be about the business of inviting a few more guests to our Fathers banquet table. Let's make the church be about being the church, let's be salt, and light. Let's pick up our crosses and follow, let's be faithful and let's mean it when we say, here I am, send me. Let's stop farming out our people to other places to get deeper spirituality. Let's find ways to meet the needs and allow God to use us as a means of grace to the world around us.

Wouldn't it be cool if we went around in curlers at home, with the family that already loves us, so we would be ready to look good for the company? Just a thought.