Why I am a fan of my church

At Justin’s invitation, I have become a “fan” of my church. This does not mean I have sat in a stadium with 89,000 other church fans and rooted for my church to defeat another church on some sort of ecumenical playing field. I have not screamed as my church’s electric guitar player strummed – slowly, as if savoring good-tasting and sexual at the same time – those all-too familiar chords of the song the most people agree are the strongest. My church has not authored one of my top-ten favorite books, nor has it starred, directed, produced or cinematographized (I know, I’m really reaching) a film that I have been trying to tell my friends about (though, I hasten to point out, a church member has). My church has not rallied me to believe that by electing it to a higher office, the American dream would be made more possible, not just to me, but to all of our citizens.

As you can guess, I struggled with this. Being a fan is a superficial activity. A church should not be superficial. It’s about Christ, his body, his sacraments. Being a fan comes across as tribal. Church is about overcoming tribalism and loving everyone, regardless. I am not always good at overcoming my tribalism and my superficiality, and sometimes churches are not either. By God’s grace, we move in this direction. So how can a be a fan?

My new status as church-fan is an electronic proclamation via Facebook, and therein lies my justification for church fandom. Yes, much of Facebook is about identifying yourself in groups, and much of this lies between superficiality, randomness and nerdiness. I reached the height of nerddom when I joined a group about dinosaurs. But one of the redeeming factors of the younger generation is how we can reveal a subtle realness behind things superficial, random and nerdy. I think we’ve learned to do this growing up under a barrage of electronic advertising. Between all the silliness, we can shout something real across the bluish landscapes of Facebooks. I belong to a community of people who are seeking Christ. We are led by people who have studied the scriptures, and from there, they give us direction, admonition and encouragement. We meet in the evenings, sing, confess, read, listen, pray, proclaim, eat bread and drink wine. We study, reach out, and seek to live like we believe the Spirit of God is within us (as our recent study in 1Corinthians has emphasized). We are not perfect, and we are aware of it. Everybody is invited.

And our new website is going to be pretty cool.