This morning I was doing a little bit of shopping at Macy's department store. I was going through the check out procedure with scanning my debit card when the store's associate said that they were having some computer problems. He tried to make the transition a couple of times and then he called someone.
He said he would try one more time and if it didn't work, "I would be out of luck." Interesting comment. What he said to me was that I was lucky to be purchasing something from that store. I didn't feel so lucky. There was no apology. There was no request if I wanted to pay cash.
Have we come to the point that companies believe that we are lucky to be giving them our money? Are we in danger within the church to have this kind of mentality? Do we believe that people are lucky to get to worship with us?
I think many churches live into this mentality with the way they use language that doesn't connect to people outside or even inside the church. They do it by choosing to be traditional instead of relational. They do it by preaching boring sermons.
I also shopped at Men's Wearhouse this morning. I purchased a pair of pants that they didn't even have in the store. However, every time I have been in this store it is a relational experience. They do not have the same mentality that Macy's has. They treat me like a privileged guest. It's all in the little things that they do that sets them apart. I may have to spend more money there, but it's worth it.
As I finished paying for my pants, it would have been very easy for the sales person to hand me my receipt across the counter and for her to tell me to have a nice day, like she had done a million times before. Instead, she walked out around the counter (which was pretty big to begin with) and she handed me my receipt. It's not a huge thing, but to me that's service.
Are we in the church willing to have "walk around the counter" service for the people who walk in our doors? Are we willing to put aside the "I've done this a million times" attitude and treat each person who walks in our doors as a treasure from God?
Saturday, February 3, 2007
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3 comments:
While I agree with you re: the importance of being relational as a TOP priority, I'm not sure I agree with all of the post.
You seem to imply (in your fourth paragraph) that "relational" is opposed to "traditional".
I'm reminded of Gwen Shamblin, a famous heretic who made lots of money in the late 90s/early 00s with her religion-based weight loss program. Professing Christianity, she denied important dogmas like the Trinity, saying, "People don't care about the Trinity; they just want to lose weight."
This is the problem with rejecting tradition (like Trinitarian doctrine) just to please the crowd. Jesus gave people what they needed (sometimes painfully so), not just what they wanted.
"Traditional" is not only good...it's vital. We shouldn't be too quick to reject 2000 years of Christian teaching, just to be more relational! Both truths are necessary, and possible!
Wow, this sounds way too close to what the Pharisees were saying around Jesus about tradition. I would never say that the Trinity is tradition; it is biblical. The word "Trinity" may not have been used, but the relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are very clear. I believe and teach about that relationship, not because it is tradition, but because it is biblical.
If you know anything about me, I am definitely not into pleasing the crowd. I'm much more interested, I would go so far as to say, driven to be biblical. I want biblical community. I want to help the people God has called me to serve to know the totality of doing life with Jesus, together.
There's a huge difference between where you are coming from and where I am coming from.
I think we're probably pretty close...but, as I said, you seemed to imply (in the 4th paragraph) that "traditional" and "relational" are mutually exclusive. If I'm misreading or misunderstanding what you wrote, then please forgive me.
I would say that there are lots of aspects of traditional Christianity...which I consider to be biblically-based...that we need to uphold, and are not opposed to being relational (quite the opposite).
What do you mean when you use the word "traditonal"? Maybe we're just defining the word in different ways.
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