"How do they get the deer to cross at that yellow road sign?" -- George Carlin
Have you seen the signs for Deer Crossing, Bear Crossing, Duck Crossing, even Frog Crossing? There are even stranger signs.
Of course the answer to Carlin's question is that the signs are placed where the animals are known to cross. Why is it funny? Because bureaucrats and politicians decide where human crossings are, and try to get the people to cross there, and Carlin is applying that concept to animals.
Deconstructing the joke doesn't make it funnier, but it illustrates our expectations of people.
We people like to think we can corral other people into paths we make. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. People take shortcuts across corner lawns and cross in the middle of the street. Anywhere a rut is worn into the ground in urban or suburban areas, it's likely that people have created an unofficial path.
In churches, we often seem to want to set up our crossings on our terms. People in the church decide when they want to have worship, where they will worship, and what style the worship will take. This is great for the people who make the decisions, but then the question becomes:
"How do they get new people to come at that yellow church sign?"
What we rarely do is to look at where people actually are: physically, geographically, and even in terms of free time. Instead, we assume people will alter their schedules and lives to come to our churches.
But we're not looking to reach the people who already have their lives arranged around Sunday morning - these people are probably already going to a church. We want to reach the people who walk others paths in life.
What we need to do is to figure out where people are: physically, geographically, and in terms of free time. We also need to consider where they are emotionally, theologically, socially, and whether past experiences with the church have altered the paths they walk.
Then we need to place worship experiences at the places people are known to cross - places where people are open to worship, in their times, in their places, in their styles.
This is what emergent worship is about. It's about serving the spiritually hungry more than about getting people into our trendy restaurants. It's about creating community around the lonely more than about filling rooms in our inns.
It's time we start putting up the signs where people already cross.
Have you seen the signs for Deer Crossing, Bear Crossing, Duck Crossing, even Frog Crossing? There are even stranger signs.
Of course the answer to Carlin's question is that the signs are placed where the animals are known to cross. Why is it funny? Because bureaucrats and politicians decide where human crossings are, and try to get the people to cross there, and Carlin is applying that concept to animals.
Deconstructing the joke doesn't make it funnier, but it illustrates our expectations of people.
We people like to think we can corral other people into paths we make. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. People take shortcuts across corner lawns and cross in the middle of the street. Anywhere a rut is worn into the ground in urban or suburban areas, it's likely that people have created an unofficial path.
In churches, we often seem to want to set up our crossings on our terms. People in the church decide when they want to have worship, where they will worship, and what style the worship will take. This is great for the people who make the decisions, but then the question becomes:
"How do they get new people to come at that yellow church sign?"
What we rarely do is to look at where people actually are: physically, geographically, and even in terms of free time. Instead, we assume people will alter their schedules and lives to come to our churches.
But we're not looking to reach the people who already have their lives arranged around Sunday morning - these people are probably already going to a church. We want to reach the people who walk others paths in life.
What we need to do is to figure out where people are: physically, geographically, and in terms of free time. We also need to consider where they are emotionally, theologically, socially, and whether past experiences with the church have altered the paths they walk.
Then we need to place worship experiences at the places people are known to cross - places where people are open to worship, in their times, in their places, in their styles.
This is what emergent worship is about. It's about serving the spiritually hungry more than about getting people into our trendy restaurants. It's about creating community around the lonely more than about filling rooms in our inns.
It's time we start putting up the signs where people already cross.
