Sooooooooooooooooo it’s been a while… partly because I’ve had a LOT on my plate, partly because I haven’t had much to say, and partly because I haven’t felt like I’ve entirely been in a place where I should be saying things… I’m not going to revisit that stuff but if you want to know more you can dig through the archive’s and read some of my older posts… what’s important is I’m on my way back :)…
I recently had the privilege of seeing Tim Minchin perform his new show with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra… First up the guy is an INCREDIBLE showman… he is funny, he is intelligent and he is extremely talented… That being said – he HATES the church… and our expression of what God looks like. So much so that he has hundreds of thousands of people around the world singing his humourous exaggerations about what the church looks like and how irrelevant it is… His show this time was no different – going so far as to call God a **nt. Obviously, I don’t like it… and my being there is in no way meant to seem as a support of that opinion…
But I figure I can have 1 of 2 responses… one, do what most christians do and get frustrated with his ‘attitude’ and his ‘unwillingness to reason’ and write the guy off completely… or two, get fascinated as to WHY someone would reach that conclusion and improve HOW we communicate the gospel better… I chose option two ;)…
And honestly, that is a MUCH harder choice to make because it means we… I… Have to look INWARD at our… my… own error and ask the tougher question – how did we… I… contribute to this mentality? Not just with Tim, but with anyone?
Honestly, Tim’s frustration is valid… and to remove his right to be frustrated is not a path we have authority to go down… so what is Tim’s frustration? He is frustrated by some of the things that frustrate many who opposed ‘The Church’ in recent years… our perceived focus on money, questions around why a loving God would let people starve, why middle class people pray middle class prayers while kids die of curable diseases, why churches have multi million dollar facilities and multi million dollar budgets without a perceived accountability to how THEIR money is spent… and of course like many ‘intellectuals’ – using the bible to prove God’s existence to someone who doesn’t hold the bible as credible seems like stupidity… at best…
All that laid out – do we really WANT to learn from someone so ‘critical’ and so ‘unteachable?’ short answer: yes, and the future of the church depends on our ability to listen to our critics… And most importantly – how do we do it without compromising the gospel…
For starters there is no short answer to any of his, or anyone’s, frustrations – but that doesn’t mean as a church we aren’t responsible for trying to address them… And honestly, SOME of his frustrations need to be looked at, scrutinised and addressed INTERNALLY and others are things that will not change without an acceptance for the need to have faith.
Take our nature for prayer… we pray for US all the time – for our church to grow, for our programs to improve, for the healing of our family or friend, for financial prosperity… and those things ARE important… but externally, looking in, it does look selfish… and hypocritical for God to do MORE for us when it would appear he has done so little for others… truth is – we know God has done EVERYTHING necessary for life and godliness through the full knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. (2 peter 1:3). But the part of that puzzle we always leave out is that PART of that everything is in us… is us… part of God’s response to the plight of the hungry, the naked, the imprisoned, the sick and the homeless is us… and we don’t take the call to THEIR needs as seriously as we take the call to our own… and that IS sad…
What about money? for decades people have accused the church of being ‘money focussed’ – and we have argued it and justified it and largely ignored their feedback as ‘opposition’ rather than seeing it as a chance to change our perceptions… I wonder how many churches are even committing 10% of their total budget to missions… or 10% of their total budget to local community work?! I promise you this: No body is going to wake up on Sunday and decide to go to church for the first time because you have a new lighting desk… they would go if they felt like you actually cared about them… and about their community… but they don’t feel that – and that is our fault…
I wonder how Tim would criticise the early church? how would he criticise a movement of people who committed everything that had to the service of the kingdom and to the caring of the poor? How would he criticise a community that shared and divided everything – regardless of race, regardless of stature, regardless of gender… could he criticise a movement like that?
I am going to do another piece entitled ‘Thing’s Tim Minchin could learn from the church’ – but I think it’s always better to look internally at growth and change before we try and look at what needs to change externally…
much love,
adam
8 comments
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March 11, 2011 at 7:47 am
Cory
Nice post. Whats really interesting to me is that the only people I know who have actually gone and seen Tim Minchin have been Christians… I definitely think that we need to own and respond to the things we, as the church, have gotten wrong.
I love the tone of this post too, you’re gentle in your reproach to the church, it is clear you love the church and are a part of it while being committed to ‘being the change you want to see’ in it. I am looking forward to reading your follow up post on what Tim can learn from the church bro. Good one.
March 21, 2011 at 12:30 pm
itsrealsimple
thanks for the feedback 🙂
I try my best not to come across as a hater – hahaha – I am as much a part of “The Church” as the next person 🙂
My new Tim Minchin post is up to 🙂
March 18, 2011 at 10:08 pm
Alicia
Thank you for your post. I sit with troubling echoes of similar things.
You wrote:
“I wonder how Tim would criticise the early church? how would he criticise a movement of people who committed everything that had to the service of the kingdom and to the caring of the poor? How would he criticise a community that shared and divided everything – regardless of race, regardless of stature, regardless of gender… could he criticise a movement like that?”
Challenging stuff. Troubling thoughts. I’ve wrestled tentatively with these thoughts for years, coming to the only conclusion I could fathom… just go live in the third world. But that’s no answer. Jesus came for us too. Us rich middle-class Christians. But not so we could just add him to our shoulder as an advice giver and good luck charm.
We hold so tightly to our stuff, our lifestyles, defending each thing we consume as something we ‘deserve’ for all our hard work. But really I deserve nothing, and I can say that, but do I really ‘get’ it?
The rich young man troubles me. His need to hold on to stuff epitimises my need to keep to morals and laws, but also ask where the limits are… what can I keep for myself? But I never see Jesus give us limits. He leaves me with more questions than answers when it comes to what I should give up to follow him. And at the same time he asks me not to worry and that he clothes lillies and so he will close me.
Any change in the church has to start with me. Am I willing?
Sorry to take over your blog, thank you for giving me a chance to think…
March 21, 2011 at 12:37 pm
itsrealsimple
no apologies Alicia 🙂
GREAT to hear from you… and you write a million times better than I do – so please dumb your comments down a little – that way I look better 😉 – hahaha kidding 😛
The rich young ruler is a scary comparison for all of us… Seemingly He did EVERYTHING right before ‘encoutnering Jesus’ unfortunately he chose not change anything after his encounter…
I wrote a blog comparing Him to Peter aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages ago – you can read it here if you want 🙂
March 21, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Alicia
Lol thats kinda embarrising… I like how straight forward you write… I feel like my words dance around things too much sometimes, leaving a lot unsaid.
Read your Peter post… good thoughts.
We’ve been looking at a guy called Henri Nouwen at our night service recently and I’ve been reading a chapter on his life by Philip Yancy. He was a renown catholic priest who transversed the worlds of catholic/prodestant and had degrees and fame and all sorts in the academic/ religious world. Yet he chose to go and live in a community and take care of the disabled for the remaining days of his life, not because he was taking some higher moral ground, but because he believed he need to learn what it meant to be God’s child from these people.
If I can somehow grasp some of his humility and understanding of God’s Father heart for me, I believe that the pursuit of ‘advancement’ which seems to drive our churches and me included, might start to fall away…
I’ve gone slightly off topic but here is a web address for an article by Yancy about Nouwen…
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/4631.htm
March 19, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Sam
By a strange circum-happen-stance this is really relevant to me at the moment! :0
Being involved in comedy, all too often I see the constant digs at the Church for just a cheap laugh. I see no reason to go there but again and again so many comedians I thought I enjoyed say really inappropriate things that I find quite unnecessary. I like your take on this though. I forget to look at why they’re saying things like that rather than just what they’re saying.
Can’t wait to hear your next piece!
March 21, 2011 at 12:39 pm
itsrealsimple
haha – glad it is relevant 🙂
Tim is a VERY intellegent, VERY gifted and VERY funny guy… It definitely would seem a shame to write him off because he bags the church… I’d much rather ask the question ‘why’ and try to understand him better first 🙂
March 21, 2011 at 12:39 pm
itsrealsimple
ps. next piece is up 🙂