Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Church in 21st Century

Lately, I have been wrestling a lot on the subject of 'Church in the 21st Century'.

I have seen many varieties on the development of Churches in this 21st Century particularly dealing with the 'physical' nature of a church. Starting from the subject of the church building until the use of multimedia/technology. Some churches remove the 'cross' symbol as part of the new building project, some introduce 'cafe' style kind of building where people can buy a cup of coffee or cakes or other hot food inside the church, some will have a Christian bookshop, and perhaps much more which I may not be aware of. Multimedia technology has also been used as part of the worship time, projecting the announcements, songs and perhaps much more. The lighting also plays a role in this 21st century churhes, so many lighting projecting to the centre of the pulpit with so many varieties of colours, even the chairs also play a significant role.

Why does a church need to remove the 'cross' where it is the symbol of Christianity ? Not saying that we worship the 'cross' but one cannot deny it is the identity of Christian faith.

Why does a church need to introduce a 'food bar' or 'cafe' ? If the church is really serious about this in order to reach out to the community, then why the church doesn't provide this service for free not even receiving a single cent ?

Why is there so much colourful lighting as if it is an entertainment centre?

I honestly couldn't stop thinking why the church needs to do this drastic changes. Is it to keep up with the changes in the society on how they perceive what a church is ? Is the church afraid on losing its relevancy to the community ? Is the church afraid losing its congregation (ie. numbers) ? Thus, it needs to do this drastic changes.

Sometimes, I wonder in the midst of this drastic changes, has the church lost its focus? Has the church lost its identity ? Has the church really placed God as the only head ?

I wonder whether there is still 'reverence' to God with all the hypes of this drastic changes.

I wonder if the church becomes the same as the world in this century, the only difference perhaps adding the name/label 'Jesus' or 'Christ' but the way it has been managed/run is no difference with secular organisation.

I wonder if the church becomes 'commercial' driven rather than 'humility' driven as the servant of Christ ?

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