Because of working at a church, I learned many new Christian words to increase my vocabulary. Some would argue that these new words are in fact "academic" words, but then those people obviously don't get out much. My new word of the day is apologetics. It really isn't new to me today or even this week. I think I first heard it six or seven years ago. It seemed pretty self explanatory. You are saying you are sorry for whatever you have done. Sort of. The church uses the word to explain what it does. More of an excuse actually. So really the word should be more of an excusagetic. That word sounds even better. In Christian circles, when you want to explain what your faith is about or the doctrine (rules) associated with your church, they explain it in a heading labeled apologetics. The funny thing is, nobody seems to be apologizing for anything. I guess the church is saying "I'm sorry you didn't know what we do." Not much of an apology, is it?
I recently took a seven day vacation on a cruise ship. This is a totally different way to look at life that needs it's own posting. But that will be another time. At dinner time, you are usually assigned to a table with a few other couples and will share a meal with these people for seven nights in a row. Our table conversation one night took a turn to discuss the "Bible Belt". This is the area of the southern United States where many Charismatic churches are located. A quick summary of U.S. churches goes here with some stereotypes.
The southern United States is home to many Charismatic churches. The northeast is home to both liberal and conservative churches, but more of an institutional church or political club than a place of religious practice. The midwest has the lion's share of fundamentalist churches and cults, and the west....well the west doesn't really do church unless it is trendy somehow.
Back to my dinner table discussion. It becomes obvious that none of our table guests are regular church goers. In fact, one couple is Jewish, but not practicing (in their own words). They all observed that in spite of a down economy, there are still hundreds of churches in their neighborhoods. Unlike businesses that we pass by every day and are struggling to survive, apparently if your church building still stands, the church must be doing quite well.
I thought of apologetics. Nobody has asked me what I do for work yet. That is day four conversation stuff and we were only on day three which clearly is demographic discussion night. There really are no assigned dinner topics, but my experience with small groups gathered for dinner has led me to observe this natural progression of dinner table sharing. Day three conversation is limited to where we live and have come from. It's when people really want to tell you how big their house is but drop hints so you get the idea, because that is more polite. I thought of how to drop a hint to tell them I work at a church, but figured that would kill the church conversation. I waited for the next night, and was not disappointed.
"So David, what do you do for work?" came the question. "I work at a church" came the answer. Silence followed. The Jewish guy broke the silence with "that sounds great!" Others chimed in asking questions about what type of church I work at.
Maybe it was just me, but I felt a hint of "hope you didn't take offense to our conversation last night" in each of the statements. I suppose that is the other side of apologetics. People make excuses for why they don't attend a church. They aren't really apologizing for not coming. They explain what their faith is and their own beliefs which don't match the church. Excusagetics. It's not just for churches anymore.
The church labels it's explanations to people as apologetics which sounds nice and non-confrontational. The church also labels people who don't come to church as "lost" and their reasons for not coming are excuses. God never offered up excuses. Floods, plagues, Jesus. No excuse. None needed. Something about His ways are higher than ours. The church seems to be in the business of apologizing for God. Does He really need our "help"?
I recently took a seven day vacation on a cruise ship. This is a totally different way to look at life that needs it's own posting. But that will be another time. At dinner time, you are usually assigned to a table with a few other couples and will share a meal with these people for seven nights in a row. Our table conversation one night took a turn to discuss the "Bible Belt". This is the area of the southern United States where many Charismatic churches are located. A quick summary of U.S. churches goes here with some stereotypes.
Back to my dinner table discussion. It becomes obvious that none of our table guests are regular church goers. In fact, one couple is Jewish, but not practicing (in their own words). They all observed that in spite of a down economy, there are still hundreds of churches in their neighborhoods. Unlike businesses that we pass by every day and are struggling to survive, apparently if your church building still stands, the church must be doing quite well.
I thought of apologetics. Nobody has asked me what I do for work yet. That is day four conversation stuff and we were only on day three which clearly is demographic discussion night. There really are no assigned dinner topics, but my experience with small groups gathered for dinner has led me to observe this natural progression of dinner table sharing. Day three conversation is limited to where we live and have come from. It's when people really want to tell you how big their house is but drop hints so you get the idea, because that is more polite. I thought of how to drop a hint to tell them I work at a church, but figured that would kill the church conversation. I waited for the next night, and was not disappointed.
"So David, what do you do for work?" came the question. "I work at a church" came the answer. Silence followed. The Jewish guy broke the silence with "that sounds great!" Others chimed in asking questions about what type of church I work at.
Maybe it was just me, but I felt a hint of "hope you didn't take offense to our conversation last night" in each of the statements. I suppose that is the other side of apologetics. People make excuses for why they don't attend a church. They aren't really apologizing for not coming. They explain what their faith is and their own beliefs which don't match the church. Excusagetics. It's not just for churches anymore.
The church labels it's explanations to people as apologetics which sounds nice and non-confrontational. The church also labels people who don't come to church as "lost" and their reasons for not coming are excuses. God never offered up excuses. Floods, plagues, Jesus. No excuse. None needed. Something about His ways are higher than ours. The church seems to be in the business of apologizing for God. Does He really need our "help"?
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