Is your church “relevant”?
That is clearly the new buzzword here in yuppyland. We have visited three different evangelical churches here in North Indy and have concluded that in all churches we would be thoroughly entertained.
The pews are full, the parking lot’s jammed with police directing traffic. The buildings are huge appearing more like auto plants than churches. Last week we were even transported from our car to the church building in a deluxe elongated golf cart!
In all three churches the music has been excellent- to the point of a professional production. In two of the three churches, the pastors look welcoming in their jeans and punjabis. The Starbuckesque café’s next to the foyer produce that cosmopolitan feeling that is sure to get people in the mood to be relaxed.
The youth programs are produced with multimillion-dollar budgets and you can be assured of the safety of your children with the bar code check in procedure.
The stages are lit up with colored panels each with their own corresponding projector and A/V presentations appear to have been produced by full time professionals.
The only negative (and so it would seem) is that people are generally to themselves and there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of friendliness for those visiting. But “hey” – they have the “visitors center” for you, so I guess no problem there.
So at the Visitors Center last week we get our “visitors bag” complete with DVD so we could watch the pastor tell us about the church. According to this pastor, this main desire is that people that come here will find it “fun”.
Wow – who could ask for more?!
After all, that is what being a follower of Jesus means – right? Comfortable, soothed, entertained, cottled, - “let’s have FUN!”
All righty then.
