Are We Christians (and Our Churches) Stuck in a Stifling Status Quo?

Check out missiologist Alan Hirsch's 2 minute video. He speaks quite fast, so here's the transcript:

I think that Christians are very risk-averse. And churches are very risk averse.

 

Churches are places that you don't normally associate with adventure or risk or creativity. Because here is the deal: If you want to be creative you have to risk failure. If you want to achieve something beyond the status quo, you have to get out of the status quo. That means you can't make everyone happy.

The problem is that without that (risking failure and getting out of the status quo), you never go anywhere. So we are stuck with this stifling status quo, which I think many churches are stuck in, because we have cultivated this (obsession with) safety--this middle class obsession with safety and security. I'm afraid that that will kill us in the end.

 

A little bit of danger is good for us. A risk doesn't have to always be death defying. Doing a job that pushes us out of our comfort zone is very good for us. 

I think that in America we largely self-identify as a middle class society.  There is nothing evil about the middle class. But one of the "bad" things about the middle class is its cultural obsession with security, safety, comfort and convenience. There is no question about that. That is the bad side. There is this need to secure the kids.

But when that (need for security) becomes obsessive, it is dangerous to the gospel. Because it attenuates the gospel. Because the gospel calls that into question. So what we do is, we have to resolve the tension. We usually do this in the name of the family. So the gospel becomes a "civil religion" that just affirms my lifestyle. I think the middle class America or the "middle class church" easily co-opts Christianity to be this "civil" religion. It becomes a country club atmosphere without threats. It is nice and safe. It is part of my world, the religious aspect of my world. But I don't experience adventure or journey or quest over there (in the church) at all.

But real adventure and real journey and real quest is where we are stakeholders in the outcome, where our bodies are on the line. But it doesn't happen very often. It is good for us! If it doesn't kill you, it will make you a lot stronger...but it could kill you.

Let us acknowledge it. It doesn't have to be far out, it doesn't have to be death-defying, but you have to put yourself out a little bit. One of the things you will learn is you will find Jesus in new ways. You learn to trust God in new ways. And let's see what God can do through us!

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