Thinking about church and stuff

Micah has a great post about a Jesuit ministry that puts ex gang members to work and Micah connects that to the current worship movement. He notes that one of the problems with that type of worship is that it is mostly singing about God and how great he is rather than actually trying to BE more like him. As one of the comments put it, that kind of worship service acts as if God is incredibly insecure and has to be soothed with his worshippers telling him how great he is. This is a great contrast between religious faith that actually, tangibly changes people and one that makes the attendees feel good, period. Is that really what faith is about?

Then, in a related vein is a fabulous post by Greg over at the Parish about what the cross means in Christian life. He notes that this stark symbol of sacrifice and obedience has become yet another symbol of self-centered religion. As in Micah's post on worship, the cross no longer calls us to BE anything, since it has all been done for us. Church is rapidly becoming a place where people consume their own ego and call it faith. A place where you sing about how great God is, but don't try to actually do anything to make the world a better place. A place where you can nod "amens" to the sermon about Jesus feeding the 500 and see no irony in your own affluence.

Brandon over at Badchristian has a nice rant going on how his worship leader has graded volunteer worship leaders into categories. The thought of it gives me the willies. The next day he went to church and saw a cheezy drama (in the service) about this binary challenge between good and evil. Church as entertainment, I guess. I am reminded of a church in OKC that was advertising on tv that they would give away a motorcycle at their church service, but you had to attend to be eligible. It all feels for sale.

And finally, a weird and probably common scene. On our way to Austin to the music festival, we glimpsed a church off the interstate in Oklahoma. Not uncommon, and neither was the American flag pole in the front driveway. Circled around this flagpole was a group of people holding hands and (if you can tell from 70 mph) praying. I have heard of the Meet at the Pole movements and suppose this was something like that. But it was the very first time that I ever saw how clearly that looked like people praying to the American flag. But that is what they are doing, right? God=America=GWB=Democracy=Capitalism=SUV, right?