"A church for people who aren't into church"
When my host and driver for the weekend announced that she wanted to attend a church in Hamilton, I inwardly sighed. Another church.
I've become rather disenchanted with the culture of Churchianity that permeates North American churches. They're all the same to me. Show up, put on plastic smiles, sing a few songs, listen to a man's message - sometimes interesting, often irrelevant. Exit to more plastic smiles and polite greetings.
So much about the typical church bothers me. I have found the average church to be an artificial, judgmental, and largely impersonal place. The pat Sunday school answers given to tough questions, the self-centered people who refuse to care for people beyond the doors of their church (save for the once-a-year Christmas food drive), not to mention the stereotypical hypocrites; all have played a part in making me cynical of the Sunday morning system.
Imagine my surprise when we pull into the parking lot of the local Players Movie Theatre. A church in there?
Inside I found two movie theaters filled with people, many of them under 40. On the screen was not the latest block-buster, but a live-feed of Toronto's "emerging church", pastored by a long-haired pastor by the name of Bruxy Cavey. I was at "The Meeting House: A church for people who aren't into church". (http://www.themeetinghouse.ca)
I was momentarily surprised to see quotes and clips from The Secret - a highly new-age version of the "name it and claim it" philosophy - on the big screen... but soon discovered the pastor was offering Biblical responses to Rhonda Byrne's "the universe exists to serve you" theory.
"Even we as Christians can become addicted to this idea of magic," said Bruxy. "We think that if we just get the right formula, ask the right way, use the right words... that God will do our bidding and answer our prayer in the way we want him to... like we can somehow play with his toes and get him to walk the way we want him to."
The entire series can be found on the pod-cast at
http://www.themeetinghouse.ca/themeetinghouse/myweb.php?hls=1000103
Two audio CD's enjoyed on the way home, further showed me who Bruxy is and what his church is about:
When unbelievers tell him that the church is full of hypocrites, he'll say "Wow you'd really get along with Jesus. That's exactly how he felt about the religious system of his day."
Bruxy encourages people to rethink Jesus - who he is, what he taught, what he came to do - apart from the religious system that bears his name. He emphasizes that Jesus' message was an irreligious one - Jesus came to do away with religion.
People accuse the emerging church of being overly seeker-sensitive and "Christian light" But Bruxy says that the opposite is true. "We believe in making true followers of Christ - not merely in guiding people to pray a prayer. We don't encourage people to make Jesus their saviour. We urge them to make Jesus their Lord." Nor do they seek a knee-jerk emotional conversion experience from their attendees. "We follow Jesus' model and invite people to count the cost before committing their lives to following Jesus and acknowledging that he has the right to tell them how to live."
Bruxy further believes the church needs a spirit of repentance that includes acknowledging the evil that's been done in the name of Jesus. "Christianity has failed as a religious system more than any other. When a Muslim bears the sword, he does it in keeping with his doctrine. When a Christian bears the sword, he does it in direct violation to the one he claims to follow - the one who taught us to love our enemies."
I also love Bruxy's response to homosexuals - which includes loving them, befriending them, and hanging out with them like Jesus did; as well as not rallying to legislate the morality of those who aren't Christians. "We can fight to change the law and make them act like pious Christians. But if they're not really Christians, all we've done is helped them white-wash their tombstones - the dead man's bones are still inside... It's not our place to convict them of sin - that's God's job. Ours is to love on them."
In response to those who say that it would make the church look like we approve of homosexual activity if we love the homosexuals, he replies "We need to stop worrying about appearances. Jesus sure didn't. Some people challenged his reputation as a rabbi hanging out with prostitutes and other women of ill-repute - did that stop him?
Bruxy furthermore believes (and I agree) that the church should get out of the civil union of marriage altogether and have the spiritual ceremony that's important to us, while letting the world legally match up as they will. "The world's standard on marriage has never been what really matters. Regarding divorce, Jesus said that even if the law says your divorced, if you marry someone else you're committing adultery. So if regardless of the law God sees you as married; then it can probably be said that regardless of any law, if God sees you as not married, you're not married."
Again, I entirely agree with that. Marriage is God's institution and no law can make a marriage out of something that in His eyes isn't one.
If you live in the Ottawa area, you might be interested to know that The Meeting House is going to be putting Bruxy's non-churchy exploration of Christ into a theater near you. I for one am looking forward to it after this morning. From pew to plush theater seats. From Churchianity to fellowship with genuine Christ-followers. I hope.
I've become rather disenchanted with the culture of Churchianity that permeates North American churches. They're all the same to me. Show up, put on plastic smiles, sing a few songs, listen to a man's message - sometimes interesting, often irrelevant. Exit to more plastic smiles and polite greetings.
So much about the typical church bothers me. I have found the average church to be an artificial, judgmental, and largely impersonal place. The pat Sunday school answers given to tough questions, the self-centered people who refuse to care for people beyond the doors of their church (save for the once-a-year Christmas food drive), not to mention the stereotypical hypocrites; all have played a part in making me cynical of the Sunday morning system.
Imagine my surprise when we pull into the parking lot of the local Players Movie Theatre. A church in there?
Inside I found two movie theaters filled with people, many of them under 40. On the screen was not the latest block-buster, but a live-feed of Toronto's "emerging church", pastored by a long-haired pastor by the name of Bruxy Cavey. I was at "The Meeting House: A church for people who aren't into church". (http://www.themeetinghouse.ca)
I was momentarily surprised to see quotes and clips from The Secret - a highly new-age version of the "name it and claim it" philosophy - on the big screen... but soon discovered the pastor was offering Biblical responses to Rhonda Byrne's "the universe exists to serve you" theory.
"Even we as Christians can become addicted to this idea of magic," said Bruxy. "We think that if we just get the right formula, ask the right way, use the right words... that God will do our bidding and answer our prayer in the way we want him to... like we can somehow play with his toes and get him to walk the way we want him to."
The entire series can be found on the pod-cast at
http://www.themeetinghouse.ca/themeetinghouse/myweb.php?hls=1000103
Two audio CD's enjoyed on the way home, further showed me who Bruxy is and what his church is about:
When unbelievers tell him that the church is full of hypocrites, he'll say "Wow you'd really get along with Jesus. That's exactly how he felt about the religious system of his day."
Bruxy encourages people to rethink Jesus - who he is, what he taught, what he came to do - apart from the religious system that bears his name. He emphasizes that Jesus' message was an irreligious one - Jesus came to do away with religion.
People accuse the emerging church of being overly seeker-sensitive and "Christian light" But Bruxy says that the opposite is true. "We believe in making true followers of Christ - not merely in guiding people to pray a prayer. We don't encourage people to make Jesus their saviour. We urge them to make Jesus their Lord." Nor do they seek a knee-jerk emotional conversion experience from their attendees. "We follow Jesus' model and invite people to count the cost before committing their lives to following Jesus and acknowledging that he has the right to tell them how to live."
Bruxy further believes the church needs a spirit of repentance that includes acknowledging the evil that's been done in the name of Jesus. "Christianity has failed as a religious system more than any other. When a Muslim bears the sword, he does it in keeping with his doctrine. When a Christian bears the sword, he does it in direct violation to the one he claims to follow - the one who taught us to love our enemies."
I also love Bruxy's response to homosexuals - which includes loving them, befriending them, and hanging out with them like Jesus did; as well as not rallying to legislate the morality of those who aren't Christians. "We can fight to change the law and make them act like pious Christians. But if they're not really Christians, all we've done is helped them white-wash their tombstones - the dead man's bones are still inside... It's not our place to convict them of sin - that's God's job. Ours is to love on them."
In response to those who say that it would make the church look like we approve of homosexual activity if we love the homosexuals, he replies "We need to stop worrying about appearances. Jesus sure didn't. Some people challenged his reputation as a rabbi hanging out with prostitutes and other women of ill-repute - did that stop him?
Bruxy furthermore believes (and I agree) that the church should get out of the civil union of marriage altogether and have the spiritual ceremony that's important to us, while letting the world legally match up as they will. "The world's standard on marriage has never been what really matters. Regarding divorce, Jesus said that even if the law says your divorced, if you marry someone else you're committing adultery. So if regardless of the law God sees you as married; then it can probably be said that regardless of any law, if God sees you as not married, you're not married."
Again, I entirely agree with that. Marriage is God's institution and no law can make a marriage out of something that in His eyes isn't one.
If you live in the Ottawa area, you might be interested to know that The Meeting House is going to be putting Bruxy's non-churchy exploration of Christ into a theater near you. I for one am looking forward to it after this morning. From pew to plush theater seats. From Churchianity to fellowship with genuine Christ-followers. I hope.