Six flags over Jesus

Chapter 169

“Six flags over Jesus” - Brandon Crunkelton

This is a good description of the modern western church. Eastern church too. Maybe churches everywhere in the modern world.

For those who are uneducated in the Theme Parks of America, Six Flags is one of these, where you go to have fun all day, riding rides, watching shows, eating food, getting wet, and hanging out with friends. There is a parallel to modern church in each one of those.

But the bottom line is that Six Flags is a place for entertainment. Only. Its a fun place. No one has a bad day at Six Flags. Its a happy place. And for the fee you pay to get in, it had better be!

While church can have moments when it is fun like Six Flags, it’s fundamental purpose is different. And I can already feel your resistance to this rising, I get it. We have been in the modern church movement where we have worked for decades to make church more user friendly and more accessible for the communities that they are located in. We have made it nicer and friendlier and less objectionable. Or at least we think we have.

But in that process perhaps we have lost much of the substance? I am struggling to find any church anywhere, that I can hear a message that stays true to the point of the text, rather than drifting out into cultural hot topics and politics. It feels like we have the same sermon each week, regardless of the text. That is the exposition side of things. I think that the song writing in some circles has made spectacular progress in deep theological moving music and words, though none of that has reached the church world where I am currently staying.

And let’s be frank here, I could be totally wrong about all of this. The problem could just be me.