More Relevant, or Less?

 9.West sent me this, about the Archbishop of Canterbury letting loose with all manner of liturgical reform. The basis for this is to provide more "relevant" services in order to increase Church attendance.

They seem to forget, however, that what is relevant, is that people work out their salvation.  Mere showing up at Church doesn't accomplish that.  I attended a high school band concert a few weeks ago, that was held in one of the local non-denom church buildings.  Does my simply being there help me grow closer to God?  I doubt it somehow.  Now, I realize (hope) that nobody thinks that merely showing up at a building accomplishes anything.  You have to ask, though, what they are trying to accomplish.  In some ways, this is reminiscent of the bait and switch mentality you see with many missionary groups.  Some friends of ours are over in Germany where they provide English classes at their Church (Claudia and I can't figure out why, as English is taught in the schools).  The idea is to get folks comfortable in the building.  Then you can present the standard Evangelical 30 second Gospel, have them recite the sinner's prayer, and put another notch in your Bible.

What the Archbishop's group is forgetting is the switch part.  They get them in the building, but they don't seem to actually present the Gospel.  If anything, the notion that services need to be comfortable and appealing seems to contradict the whole "take up your cross" notion.  Further, you have to admit that the praying for CEO's of Walmart, etc. smack of a bit of self-righteousness, which is hardly demonstrative of the sort of humility that is essential in one's salvation.

This group is also forgetting that our worship is supposed to be the earthly reflection (dim as it may be) of heavenly worship.  Thus, an Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy, or a more classical Roman Catholic Mass will bring to mind scenes from the book of Revelation.  Engaging in heavenly style worship facilitates our growing closer to God by making us more heavenly minded, or, perhaps more accurately, by helping us ascend into heaven, at least briefly.

What they are accomplishing here is to make Church less relevant, at least regarding the stuff that matters.