I sent this video to our church staff after seeing it on Marko's blog, to look at the culture we create at Shoreline. I'm not saying our culture is bad, right or wrong.I'm saying that we should be able to laugh at ourselves and then ask, "why are we laughing?" I wonder if sometimes the massive efforts the Church makes to be relevant, hip, and effective unintentionally create a sub culture?
It's ironic that the attempt to do away with cumbersome ineffective models of communication, legalistic messages, and poor perception have created a culture in itself. Brilliant! In College, I took an intro to theatre class with Dr. Laura Holland and I'll never forget her saying, "an artist cannot not communicate. I believe that statement was more about communication that just theatre and it applies to the way churches as well as artists communicate.
There was a point in my life where I would have jumped all over this video in order to make mega churches look bad. I'd point out how shallow and cold big churches can seem. I'd pick out a few examples and judge them. Looking back, I freely admit that I was merely jealous of other people's "success." What is success anyway? I don't think a church is healthy or unhealthy based on size alone. My definition of success is different than it was 5 or 6 years ago and that let me watch with an open mind. It helped me laugh without judging. Make no mistake, this is a funny video, but why is it funny? If you don't go to church, does any of this even make sense? Thoughts?
"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.
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