mardi 12 août 2008
Church culture
One of my favourite websites this summer has been Stuff Christians Like (inspired by Stuff White People Like, which makes me chuckle but not nearly as hard). It's hilarious and serious all at once, with just the right amount of sarcasm to drive the point home - absolutely perfect for Christians who are willing to laugh at their own idiosyncrasies.
As a result, I'm starting to notice more and more things that escaped my attention before, such as when worship leaders add the word 'and' to song lyrics or how some worship leaders are becoming increasingly metrosexual. The other posts are just as ridiculously entertaining but I guess the worship ones stick out more. One paragraph that has been stuck in my head since last month comes from this wonderful piece on "Talk Singing":
The surprise songI don't know why but this one makes me laugh to no end, especially as I'm driving home from church; I wonder if there's a course on how people seem to be able to do this so well on stage?
Sometimes a worship leader will kind of pretend she's not about to sing a song. As if she's having a normal conversation with you, she'll say, "Me and my husband we're talking this weekend. We were sharing a coffee to discuss some issues we're facing and we realized ... everyone needs compassion, love that's never failing, let mercy fall on me." And before you know it, you moved from hearing about weekend coffee to being a verse deep into the song "Mighty to Save."
Other observations about church culture that have surfaced in my mind have been how Christians tend to be late in coming to church - why is that? I understand the ones that come in five to twenty minutes late, but I've seen people enter worship services an hour late. It remains a mystery to me.
Another one has been the whole issue of handshakes and germs. I realize that in our culture, handshakes are a very welcoming and friendly thing to do, but have people considered how many germs get passed between people on a Sunday morning? And what about when you go out to eat after church and you need to use your hands? I usually carry hand sanitizer with me in case I don't have a chance to go to the washroom but I guess that paints me as a germophobe (okay, I'm not always diligent with this and I do worry about superbugs but still...). My best friend's mom words this situation perfectly though - when I once left to go wash my hands before eating after church, she asked if I was going to "wash the fellowship off." Hehe. Oh, church culture and its special lingo :)
