User Friendly Churches?
There is growing movement with accompanying pressure for churches to become ‘User Friendly Churches.’ What is a User Friendly Church? The only term that really needs explanation is ‘user.’ The ‘user’ is not a brother or sister in Christ, but a person held captive by the darkness and sin of the world. As I understand it, those in the world should be made to feel welcome and at home in the church. They should not be made to feel out of place at the worship services. What kind of experience would such a user have if they attended a service at a ‘User Friendly Church?’ I found the answer to this question in the Courier Mail Weekend Edition October 30, 2010 in an article written by Angela Saurine on page 28 entitled ‘Give a little of yourself.’ Angela Saurine had been told that if she was in San Francisco she should not miss the soulful singing at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church.
I was intrigued by the opening three paragraphs of her article: ‘There is a seven piece band in the corner with an excitable Africa American guy in a brown pinstripe suit on the keyboard. He looks like he’s had a role in every movie about Motown ever made. If you close your eyes, you’d be forgiven for thinking the woman who gets up to sing is Mariah Carey. She is supported by an enthusiastic 100-strong choir, made up of all colours, ages and genders.’
Further on in the article we are told that when the Rev Cecil Williams ‘was appointed to the church in 1994, he threw the doors open to everyone: hookers, pimps, drug addicts and teenage runaways from the Tenderloin community and other poor neighbourhoods. The unconventional and outspoken preacher took the giant cross down from the wall and replaced it with a light show. There are no boring sermons at the service I attended. Instead there is a PowerPoint presentation with inspiring phrases, photo’s and quotes. Images of William Barack Obama and Martin Luther King flash up. The church is decorated with banners proclaiming acceptance, justice, hope and love. The service ends with a performance by a group called Love Everywhere. Two Asian women, one playing an accordion and the other playing a violin, come together on stage and kiss passionately. It is confronting, and not the type of thing you expect to see in church on a Sunday morning, but this is San Francisco, the gay capital of the world, and Williams has been performing gay weddings for decades.’(Angela Saurine)
Concerning her spiritual life Angela Saurine says, ‘I knew the fact that I wasn’t affiliated with any particular religion wouldn’t be a problem.’ This confession allows me to think of her experience of going to the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, as that of a ‘user’ which the User Friendly Churches are seeking to reach.
I knew nothing about the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church so I looked it up on the net to gather some more information. Here are their Mission Statement and core values.
Our MISSION is to create a radically inclusive, just and loving
There is growing movement with accompanying pressure for churches to become ‘User Friendly Churches.’ What is a User Friendly Church? The only term that really needs explanation is ‘user.’ The ‘user’ is not a brother or sister in Christ, but a person held captive by the darkness and sin of the world. As I understand it, those in the world should be made to feel welcome and at home in the church. They should not be made to feel out of place at the worship services. What kind of experience would such a user have if they attended a service at a ‘User Friendly Church?’ I found the answer to this question in the Courier Mail Weekend Edition October 30, 2010 in an article written by Angela Saurine on page 28 entitled ‘Give a little of yourself.’ Angela Saurine had been told that if she was in San Francisco she should not miss the soulful singing at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church.
I was intrigued by the opening three paragraphs of her article: ‘There is a seven piece band in the corner with an excitable Africa American guy in a brown pinstripe suit on the keyboard. He looks like he’s had a role in every movie about Motown ever made. If you close your eyes, you’d be forgiven for thinking the woman who gets up to sing is Mariah Carey. She is supported by an enthusiastic 100-strong choir, made up of all colours, ages and genders.’
Further on in the article we are told that when the Rev Cecil Williams ‘was appointed to the church in 1994, he threw the doors open to everyone: hookers, pimps, drug addicts and teenage runaways from the Tenderloin community and other poor neighbourhoods. The unconventional and outspoken preacher took the giant cross down from the wall and replaced it with a light show. There are no boring sermons at the service I attended. Instead there is a PowerPoint presentation with inspiring phrases, photo’s and quotes. Images of William Barack Obama and Martin Luther King flash up. The church is decorated with banners proclaiming acceptance, justice, hope and love. The service ends with a performance by a group called Love Everywhere. Two Asian women, one playing an accordion and the other playing a violin, come together on stage and kiss passionately. It is confronting, and not the type of thing you expect to see in church on a Sunday morning, but this is San Francisco, the gay capital of the world, and Williams has been performing gay weddings for decades.’(Angela Saurine)
Concerning her spiritual life Angela Saurine says, ‘I knew the fact that I wasn’t affiliated with any particular religion wouldn’t be a problem.’ This confession allows me to think of her experience of going to the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, as that of a ‘user’ which the User Friendly Churches are seeking to reach.
I knew nothing about the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church so I looked it up on the net to gather some more information. Here are their Mission Statement and core values.
Our MISSION is to create a radically inclusive, just and loving
community mobilized to alleviate suffering and break the
cycles of poverty and marginalization.
GLIDE'S CORE VALUES
Our core values emerge from Glide as a spiritual movement. They are rooted in empowerment, recovery and personal transformation. Our core values inspire and guide our behaviours. They are the ground we stand on.
The Ground We Stand On
Radically Inclusive
We welcome everyone. We value our differences.We respect everyone.
Our core values emerge from Glide as a spiritual movement. They are rooted in empowerment, recovery and personal transformation. Our core values inspire and guide our behaviours. They are the ground we stand on.
The Ground We Stand On
Radically Inclusive
We welcome everyone. We value our differences.We respect everyone.
Truth Telling
We each tell our story. We each speak our truth.We listen.
Loving and Hopeful
We are all in recovery. We are a healing community.We love unconditionally.
For the People
We break through barriers. We serve each other.We change the world.
Celebration
We sing. We dance. We laugh together.We celebrate life!
What did Angela Saurine the ‘user,’ get from attending the morning service on the Lord’s Day? From what she has written, the most I can say is a very interesting and pleasant time listening to soulful music and some enjoyment of a PowerPoint presentation. Whether Angela Surine was being politically correct and guarded in her comments, I do not know, but as she said nothing about God’s glory, the truth of his Word, the devastating nature of sin or the real need of faith and repentance for salvation in Christ Jesus. I would imagine that they were absent as it is the essential message of the Gospel that users say makes churches unfriendly. The Church’s Mission Statement and core values also strong suggest that they would be missing. The greatest problem with the User Friendly Church is that they have gone and asked the world what makes the church unfriendly. The world has answered, ‘Everything that makes you different to us, become one of us and ignore God.’
As I think of this concept I find my mind focussing on James 4:4, ‘Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.’ I found it ironic that an article of this nature appeared in the Courier Mail Weekend Edition October 30, 2010. The next day was Reformation Sunday when we would be reminded of the Reformation cry: Sola Scriptura - Scripture Alone.
What did Angela Saurine the ‘user,’ get from attending the morning service on the Lord’s Day? From what she has written, the most I can say is a very interesting and pleasant time listening to soulful music and some enjoyment of a PowerPoint presentation. Whether Angela Surine was being politically correct and guarded in her comments, I do not know, but as she said nothing about God’s glory, the truth of his Word, the devastating nature of sin or the real need of faith and repentance for salvation in Christ Jesus. I would imagine that they were absent as it is the essential message of the Gospel that users say makes churches unfriendly. The Church’s Mission Statement and core values also strong suggest that they would be missing. The greatest problem with the User Friendly Church is that they have gone and asked the world what makes the church unfriendly. The world has answered, ‘Everything that makes you different to us, become one of us and ignore God.’
As I think of this concept I find my mind focussing on James 4:4, ‘Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.’ I found it ironic that an article of this nature appeared in the Courier Mail Weekend Edition October 30, 2010. The next day was Reformation Sunday when we would be reminded of the Reformation cry: Sola Scriptura - Scripture Alone.
