I saw one of my friends (Wes, he is a follower of this blog, God bless him) tonight and he told me after reading this blog he was surprised I worked at a church. That really did not surprise me because at most churches people that work at churches can’t say what they are thinking. Much less be themselves and still get to be a part of a suburban church.
Chuck Smith, the founder of the Calvary Chapel Movement; describe a crisis in the original Calvary Chapel when it was still a tiny church in Costa Mesa, California. It was the 1960s, in the early days of the “Jesus Movement,” and some street kids began attending their services. The kid’s dress didn’t conform to the suburban expectations, and even worse, like MOPS, they were tracking a lot of dirt into the building. Since these kids spent a lot of time on the beach, their dirt was in the form of sand, which was even a bigger housekeeping headache!
What should the church do? They held a business meeting to answer that question. Someone put a motion on floor, “not to allow anyone to attend services if they weren’t wearing shoes and if they had long hair.”
Keeping the Riff Raft Out by Making Them Pay for Their Pew
In Wesley’s England families paid an annual fee for their pews in some aristocratic churches. If you couldn’t afford to buy a pew, you couldn’t attend that church. It was effective, it kept the kept the riff raff out. But, in Wesley’s day it was just the aristocrats who function as Christian elites. Today, in America, it is the broad suburban middle class fighting to keep the riff raft out.
Not sure of the exact numbers that Chuck Smith faced in the motion, but the motion was defeated by one vote, something like 8 to 7. And once again, the rest is history. The Calvary Chapel Movement like MOPS has become one of the great stories of the 20th century American church. But both were almost killed by suburban church power brokers, who in their search for the American Dream, made housekeeping issues a top priority.
We figured out how to deal with that at a church I worked at in Southern California, we just locked all the doors. That way only those of us with combination's and keys could use the rooms we wanted to keep nice and neat and clean.
By the mid 1960s American churches had moved from Liberalism vs. Fundamentalism which pitted:
Right and Wrong Vs. Life and Death
To the Suburban Captivity which pitted:
Neat and Clean Vs. Life and Death
Thoughts about unleashing the greatest force on Earth
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About Me
- Rich
- I am a slave to no man or institution. I have worked with Frank Tillapaugh for thirty years and most of the ideas are work we would like to share.
The next generation
God thank you for two amazing young leaders
Looking Forward
Each year I get to spend time with young leaders and the gap is growing between them and my generation, why?
3 comments:
Good points Rich - no matter who we are or where we come from, we all have dirt on us.
Hey Rich,
Interesting perspective. I wish the church would simply start putting the "fun" back into fundamentalist. :)
I also thought, perhaps in error, that worship services were primarily for the church (a gathering of believers), not the world. Make no mistake, I am not suggesting keeping the dirty out, just saying if "we" viewed ourselves as the dirty wretches we are, we perhaps would use language and view the world with less social class distinctions. Blessings!
This brought another thought to mind. When I was struggling in my faith and not living the way I knew was right, I had a really hard time going to church. I didn't want to be a hypocrite. Until one day, a very wise mentor asked, "Do you take a shower before take a bath?" To which I replied, "Of course not!" She said, "Then why would you have to be totally clean to go to church? That is where you go to get the support and fellowship you need to get cleaned up."
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