Pop Jesus and it’s Sunday in Egypt
It’s Sunday. A lot of folk are at church. A lot more folk are not at ‘a’ church…
I looked at church web sites and wondered what was behind the ‘beautiful’ slick images? Rather than be attracted to attend I was repelled. What I saw was gloss and glamor and trite cliched messages.
Why was I even looking? Only because I am involved with Christian artists that I believe have a sincere desire to impact the Church and the world. Over the years they have and they continue to do so but increasingly to a smaller group of people. I get emails every day from folk who consistently ask to be able to see and hear them, however the gatekeepers keep the gates securely locked. The problem with the artists is that they’re all over 40 and no one actually cares anymore.
I think that if and when historians look back at this current church age they will go “What on earth were they thinking”? Music and ‘prosperity’ and ‘feel good’ has come to dominate church services and the music is a poor replication of current pop tunes with saccharine lyrics aimed at those who are already ‘of the fold’. As someone described it to me recently, “The church today is connected to a water grid, however the problem is, there is no water”.
If Keith Green sang “So You Want To Go Back to Egypt” as a warning and a wake up call it’s been largely ignored because it seems to me the current Church is firmly embedded in Egypt and it’s going to take a lot to get her out. Then again, the first step to recovery is the ability to recognize there is a problem and that it needs to get out and the gatekeepers are way to comfortable for that to happen.
