Stuff Christians Need to Stop Saying #4

Seriously, don’t go to a #4 in your franchise.  It’s just not worth the risk.  Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull???  I have to pretend like that never happened.  The Next Karate Kid???  Batman and Robin with George Clooney, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chris O’Donnell, Uma Thurman, Alicia Silverstone, Vivica Fox, Elle MacPherson and Coolio?  Pretty sure Coolio is the only who still has that on the old resume.  Superman IV: The Quest for Peace?? Does anyone else remember that?  Superman takes all the nukes and blows them up in the sun and Lex Luthor uses that and a lock of Superman’s hair to create a supervillain.  Then the plot, no lie, gets WORSE from there.  (Did Gene Hackman owe someone money?)

My hope is in Rocky IV which I saw in Jr. High with my friends and we cheered out loud, very loudly, and often.  My apologies to anyone else who was in the theater.

Set-up:  A kid is running around the worship center/sanctuary at your church having fun.

Response:  “Don’t run in God’s house.”  “There is no running in church.”  Or my personal favorite:  “Jesus doesn’t run in your house.  Don’t run in his.”

By the time this post is over, it will have my favorite three things to blog about in the same post: parenting, stupid things Christians say, and obscure pop culture references.  Jackpot (for me anyway).

Listen, I want you to parent your kid and keep him/her under control.  If they are headed to the sound booth with their fruit punch, please stop them.  If they are about to do a somersault off the couch onto concrete, by all means stop them.  Provide the discipline that you find appropriate.

However, can we please stop communicating to our kids that church is a place where you can’t have fun and enjoy yourself?  Chairs or pews lined up in rows are designed for running around and through and under.  We are genetically wired to do that.  You did it.  Your kids do it and their kids will as well.  It is time to end the tradition of overly anxious parents and stuffy, crotchety old men stifling kids for some dubious principle of “Church is where we act dignified.”  I don’t recall Jesus saying “Let the children come to me if they come in a quiet, orderly fashion that doesn’t disturb me, with no chocolate on their face and not wearing their favorite Spiderman t-shirt.”  However, I don’t read the Message, it may say that there.

How about instead we instill in our kids that Church is a place where they can be themselves, have fun, be expressive, and learn and experience the God that loves them?  He loves them not in spite of them being wild and crazy kids, but because they are wild and crazy kids.  He wants church to be a place that they remember as being fun, where they were loved and they got the answers to life’s most important questions.  Church doesn’t need to be a place of seemingly pointless rules.  Believe me, there is enough of that already.

Besides, my guess is that if Jesus were to come to your house, he would, in fact, run around your house with your kids.

This is My Church

Over the next few weeks, we will post some videos on what it means to take ownership of your church, to be more than just a participant.

Here is the intro to the series:

First up in the series is our need to serve.  We all have a part to play.

Next, our need to be involved in the lives of others

We also need to think carefully about when we worship:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kwmOhVSWQo

I meant to put something at the end for people who go to churches that only have one worship service. Here it is: Sit at the front. I mean the front, front. Leave the seats in the back for new people and late arrivers. You always want people to be able to find a seat easily.

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