Over the years this heavily advertized festival has had big name
entertainers with attendance well over 20,000. However, the last few years attendance
has been dropping drastically.
As my group discussed the topic I was taken back when the comments overwhelming
revealed that most of those in the room had never attended, or they attended
one year, but will not attend again. The reasons given for not participating in
the festival were large crowds and loud music.
I’m wondering if the lack of interest in big events might also affect
the religious landscape. Those labeled ‘seekers’ who once flocked to the mega-church
with its large crowds and rock band persona, may now be seeking a smaller, cozier
fellowship structure.
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Church intelligentsia yet bewilders me. I think it will until the Lord has me home. The Bible is quite clear about the new life. It is a relationship with the Lord: you and Him. Neighbors can’t do it for you. You can’t do it for them. And getting into a really big crowd of Christians doesn’t make that relationship, either. Nor does it augment the relationship. But church intelligentsia thrives on big.
-----So you grope and feel around for the Lord in this relationship. All you can feel is air between your fingers. Nothing is there of material substance. I see many people who say they’ve heard Him who then go about fighting amongst each other over what they’ve heard. Interesting. Whose ears are off? Probably them all.
-----Besides, if the definition and guidance of your relationship with Him must come through other people, the fundamentals of that relationship become very questionable. “Which people?” is a good starting question. There are sure a lot of folks saying how you should know Him. Do you want something black and white and intelligible for shaping your relationship with Him? Start with your Bible. He wrote it for that purpose, so it’s worthy of your focus.
-----If it also ends with your Bible, then you a Gnostic! But it can not end there. Gnostics are about their own understanding even more than they are about God’s understanding. To achieve God’s understanding you have to add relationships with people to your relationship with Him.
-----Then, if that’s the case, why does not more people make more understanding, and the most make the most, so the mega-church is the best? It would be the best if achieving God’s understanding only required adding people to the Bible. Do your grammatical arithmetic. The new life is about the Bible and relationships with people. “With people” is merely a modifier. The statement is even more true as, “The new life is about the Bible and relationships.” Relationships with everything. People. Concepts. Feelings. Meanings. And yah, God; especially. Your relationship with Him is built and shaped by your actions and reactions to others. All kinds of others, even things. You can’t have actions and reactions with fifty thousand people. You can take part in what you perceive their shared ideas to be. And that is a small part of relationship. But the majority of a relationship grows from intimacy, that delicate situation which measures truth.
-----You can only be intimate with the few people your times and places make available. And those few can be amongst a mega-church with you. But the mega-church adds nothing. It’s like the vat of porridge left upon the stove after you’ve filled your bowl and sat to eat. You know the vat‘s yet on the stove, but your focus best stay upon your latest spoonful, or you might stick it up your nose.
-----”Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” (Mat 25:40) The substance of your relationship with the Lord is in the substance of your relationships with others. The more meaningfully intimate you are with them, the more meaningfully intimate you are with Him. Mega-church, shmega-church. It’s just the rest of the porridge upon the stove. Pay attention to what’s on your spoon and in your bowl.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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