Thursday, July 9, 2009

Hearing The Music

The church has spent so much time inculcating in us the fear of making mistakes that she has made us like ill-taught piano students; we play our songs but we never really hear them because our main concern is not to make music, but to avoid some flub that will get us in dutch. - Philip Yancey

For many this has been their experience with church. A place of fear and condemnation. A place where we walk on egg shells, afraid to say the wrong things, do the wrong things, and think the wrong things. In this environment the rhythm and life of the gospel becomes tragically snuffed out. And sadly, the way of Jesus ends up becoming stale, mechanical, and forced.

Jesus lived a life and spoke in such a way that we might be freed from this kind of tyranny. That we might stop stressing over getting each "note" of religion perfect, and instead learn to feel the music of walking in a relationship with God.

Have you had experiences with church that felt more like grinding piano lessons? How can we foster creativity and movement so that people might feel the "rhythm" of the gospel?

2 comments:

Tall Pants said...

Good words, Dave. On a very related topic, I highly recommend David Dark's "The Sacredness of Questioning Everything." I just started it last night, but it addresses this very issue, especially in the first three pages.

Peace,bro.

dave diller said...

Hey Andrew...thanks for the book recomendation; I haven't heard about it, but will be sure to check it out. Peace