Church Refugees: What is the point?

This week I've been thinking about how church should be a place where people learn a philosophy that will help them navigate through their lives. It should be a place where we learn practical life skills, values, and principles that will help us live productive and meaningful lives while on Earth.

The apostles and disciples did this when they were following Jesus around. They were learning his philosophy and they learned values and principles to be teachers and leaders to help people on earth.

What about Now?

We've all heard the saying that some people are so heavenward bound they are up to no earthly good. That's how I feel about a lot of religion. What about the NOW? What are we learning in church that is going to help us live productive and meaningful lives in the Now?

I can't recall personal development ever being stressed when I was growing up in church. I don't remember getting any sort of teaching about purpose, impact, or developing healthy relationships. I can remember plenty of sermons about hellfire, day of judgement, if you aren't. A member of our church then you will go to hell...but nothing about how to do life.

That's why it's not a shock when the members are left on the pew with no hope, not being productive, and waiting for the preacher to give them the answers because they do not know how to access it on their own.

So to that I ask what exactly is the point of church? If we are not learning life philosophies and discovering purpose while building world changing relationships, then what is the point?

Shallow Church:  It starts with the Young People

In all of these books I've read, people have mentioned the word shallow. Church is shallow and superficial. I've felt like they too. With all the issues people are having and all of the world events, now would be a great time for faith to come center stage.

We only need to look to the faith of American teenagers to understand why church is so shallow. Teenagers become Adults and they become the adults that are in church leadership I used to hang around youth ministries with the goal of getting involved to help teach but I soon lost interest because I saw that the ministry was the popular crew clique versus the rest of them.  This went for leadership and participants I had young people telling me they felt alienated and unimportant in the grand scheme of things. They felt left out and when I brought this up it was pretty much dismissed. This same issue came up at the young adult group and was also dismissed.

When I think about my own youth in the youth group much of it was about socializing. Of course as you get older you socialize with different people and there's also adult beverages involved in the socializing  so many young people drop out of church at that point.

In church refugees the author cites a book called soul searching by Christian smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton. This is how they characterize the faith of American teenagers based upon thousands of interviews with American teens.

Teens believe in a God that exists

He wants people to be nice to each other

He answers prayers in times of trouble

Life is generally meant for enjoyment and happiness

Good people go to heaven when they die

Notice what they didn't say:

They didn't say that faith was to help others

No mention of purpose or impact

We should live moral lives and have integrity

We should build meaningful  relationships with others

Faith will get us through rough times

Jesus was the example we should follow on how to live amongst people

I am not surprised they didn't say any of those things because that's not what is being taught. Youth ministries focus  on  church rock band, church nightclub, Christian trap music, or dance offs.  There is no time to delve into these deeper issues because it's not fun.

Hello!  Look at who the role models are for young people these days! They don't need fun. They need substance to form life philosophies and values. Sure you may not get as big numbers than if you're the cool church but you also won't get the shallow and superficial people that the cool church attracts. You may get the people who actually want to make an IMPACT.  Plus the large groups at “cool church” leave as soon as that  church isn’t cool anymore and they leave for the next new shiny object.

So again I ask this question:  What is the point?  Church has been reduced to shiny object syndrome.  I am not looking for a church that teaches everything I think, but I think a main focus should be on how to teach people how to do life and help them develop faith based philosophies to help them navigate life. Jesus of Nazareth had some pretty good ideas. Too bad he doesn't get the airtime he deserves in church.