Cult following - An Appropriate Response? (Part 1)

It is four in the morning and all I can think about at this moment is the article that Mr. Holock wrote about Woodvale. The reason I have devoted a ton of thought to it recently is because I have been trying to find in my mind what an appropriate response to this article would be moving forward because the memory of it is going to undoubtedly shape the forward momentum of this worship ministry either overtly or covertly.

 

I am going to cover my thoughts on this topic in three or four separate blog entries and I hope that you are able to read them through to journey with me and hear my thoughts as the lead facilitator of worship at Woodvale.

 

This first entry on the matter is going to be about the responses that I have heard concerning the article.

 

Most of the responses I have heard (and I identify CLEARLY with all of these responses) fall into one of the following categories

 

1. Some of us thought it was a hilarious article, clearly embellished and just a casual read. When I first read the article, this is exactly how I felt about it and thought nothing of it for a while. My sister, on the other hand, thought that it was not very good and slightly reminiscent of the “Exposés” that have been done on many of the large churches in the US.
   
   
2. Some of us felt offended by the article because of the sarcastic tone and the ignorance with which he wrote about our worship experience. My guess is that those of us in this group (I am one of you) were offended, not just because we are personally responsible for the success or failure of the corporate worship experience, but because anything derogatory was not just aimed at us but at everybody with whom we share these corporate worship experiences.
   
   
3. Some of us felt like it was a long-overdue license to talk about the things that we have issues with concerning our corporate worship experience at Woodvale. Some of our comments were masked behind our concern (real or so-so) for “Spiritually seeking people”, but if you are like me, you know that the real issue is not so much concern for those that are not yet at part of our fellowship; instead, it is things that we (I) have found wrong with the current establishment… things that we (I) may feel powerless to change.
   
   
4. Some of us, by nature, choose the middle-of-the-road approach. On one hand sympathetic to the church because we just happen to be members of it even though we position ourselves as objective outsiders; on the other hand understanding of the issues that Mr Holock had with our service either through personal experience, or just because we see ourselves as being in position to bring balance to the conversation.

 

Each one of us undoubtedly found ourselves in one, two or all of these categories and I have something to say to all of you… well, those who thought it was hilarious, I have nothing to say.

 

However…

 

If you felt offended by the article, I want you to know that I understand how you feel. I believe that the Woodvale family is a group to be proud of and that through our fellowship we accomplish a lot of good. Not only that, but through our attempts to remain truly authentic (even though our attempts may seem staged to those that are cynical), people are inspired to make real life-changing decisions. More to that, people receive hope, healing, restoration and most of all a clear sense that God is in control of their lives. Mr Holock’s article need not offend us; rather, it should show us that there is still room for improvement and that there are ways that we can execute our corporate worship gatherings better so that while he (or any other visitor) may remain skeptical, the authenticity of each moment and the manifest power and presence of God is undeniable.

 

If you felt like it was a license to finally vent about the things you had issues with, I want you to know that I understand how you feel too. It is natural that our personal and spiritual journey makes us crave different things that what we may find at our corporate worship gatherings. The discussion to always improve things must continue, but we (the people in this category) have to guard against constantly focusing on all the little things that we have gripes with or else we become cynical about the worship gatherings and start to think of them as being disingenuous when in fact we have stopped seeing things objectively, but rather through the dark colored glasses of discontent. I have five questions for such people

1. Have you spent so much time focusing on the things you think should change that you have lost the ability to see God at work in our corporate gatherings?
2. Some people in this category have gone as far as stating that they too think that there is too much stuff about our services that is or seems staged and lacking in authenticity – fake if you will. If you are one of these, then you REALLY have to ask yourself whether you are right about this or not. This is not a defensive question on my part because I know that I have sat through services and started to smirk at everything that happens. However, I had to realize that I was passing judgment on a worship experience without really knowing whether it was truly deeply authentic and life transforming for its participants.
3. You may think of yourself as a voice for people that are not Christian, but you have to separate what you think you WANT in a corporate worship gathering from what would be useful in bringing somebody that was truly seeking along into a relationship with Jesus. It would be wrong of you to think that what you want as a churchgoer is what an un-churched person on an authentic spiritual search wants from a corporate worship service. You have to ask yourself this question: Have I substituted what I want in a corporate worship gathering for what I think a person that is far from God is really looking for in such a gathering?
4. You have to ask yourself why you continue to be a part of the group that is responsible for perpetrating the very thing that you find disingenuous. I believe you also have a choice to make – to be a part of bringing about real solutions to the things you think need change, or remove yourself from the team that perpetrates falsehood.
5. You also have to ask yourself what king of solutions there are to the problems that you see – real solutions and not band-aid solutions

 

For the objective, aloof observer, I would like to say that your voice is much needed in the passionate discussion that is going to continue over this topic. However, just like the group of people addressed above, you need to realize that you are part of the process and not a separate observer. If you are somehow able to see and appreciate both sides with clarity, then you should become more involved in the discussion about ways to improve our corporate worship gatherings so that they are meaningful to both groups of people – those that have been at this Christian walk for sometime and those that may be checking us out.

 

I am going to end this entry with something that sounds completely unrelated, but I think that it is actually related to this discussion.

 

When I invite people to visit my family – both my Ottawa family and my Uganda family – I always give them the inside scoop about it. I let them know that there will be times when they will not even understand the language that is being spoken; I let them know about the quirks of my family and the family members that they should not be too worried about or those that they should watch out for; and I let them know that there will be times when we shall have inside jokes to which my visiting friends shall not be privy. However, when it gets down to it, I am PROUD of my family, I love my family, and in spite of all the weirdness of the first encounter, the reason I am bringing my friend along is that I know that in time he or she will start to love them as I do and may even become a grafted member.

 

I find that this is a useful parallel to Woodvale because this church is my family. The first time you meet this family, you run into the crazy people, the ones who have a weird smile plastered to their face, the ones that treat you like trash… but eventually, you start to see that pretty much EVERYBODY is an awesome person. You start to see that being a part of the fellowship is better than sitting on the sidelines pointing fingers and making fun and most importantly, you come to LOVE the family. I am not ashamed of my church family. I know that we can be weird sometimes and that there is DEFINITELY room for improvement in our corporate worship experience, but I have learnt to not be bothered by those that would seek to make fun of us because the good in this family far outweighs the superficial quirks that you encounter when you first meet us. There is substance, authenticity, love and friendship… sometimes hard to see because of the old woman shampooing the spirit through her hair, but it IS THERE! We could do better to illuminate it, though, couldn’t we?