American Cheese – Exported

I recently attended an English-speaking Evangelical church while on vacation in Mexico (the location is withheld to protect the guilty).  It was the only Protestant church that I could find.  I would have gladly attended a Spanish-speaking Reformation church: Presbyterian, Reformed, Lutheran, even old-school Anglican.  A good liturgy overcomes language barriers.  Unfortunately, in this Mexican town it’s either Catholic or ex-patriot American schmaltz.

The service began with some high-energy praise choruses.  As soon as the first note was struck, people were bopping around with plastic smiles on their faces and hands in the air.  I am absolutely certain that these people are more spiritual and pious than I am.  There is no doubt about that.  It is just impossible for me to break into a shiny happy people-type  feeling at the drop of a hat.  Early on Sunday morning I am not ready to pretend that I’m at a Wham! concert circa 1985.  The music at this church was closer to “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” than it was to anything in the Psalter. 

Of course there was the stereotypical praise band led by a forty-something Carly Simon wannabe.  Behind her was the middle-aged but still trying hard to be cool guy.  Three teenage girls, a drummer, and a keyboardist rounded out the group.  Praise bands remind me of softball-guy – people living out their unfulfilled dreams at the expense of others.  Softball-guy has a longsuffering girlfriend/wife who follows him to every game and listens to how his high school coach and/or injury cost him a shot at the bigtime.  Praise bands have  longsuffering churches that are trying to worship in spite of mediocre musicians imagining that they’re playing Red Rocks while singing 46 verses of each identical Jesus is my Boyfriend song interspersed with “Ohhhh” and “Ahhhh” in between the actual words, all with hands raised.  I’ll take the Psalter and an out of tune piano over this stuff any day.

After the mini-concert, the pastor and his wife got up and excitedly asked the church, “How was your week?”  His response was, and the quotation marks that follow are not just for show, this is what he actually said, “We had a wing-ding of a week!”  (I assume that this is how one spells wing-ding).  This guy makes Ned Flanders look morose.  He then went on to mention that the church was “going to war” for a member who is diagnosed with cancer and that they were claiming healing for this poor woman.  He knows that God will remove the cancer.  Well, what if God doesn’t remove the cancer?  Whose fault is that?  Is it God’s fault or is it this poor woman’s fault?  Why not just ask God to comfort this woman and remind her of her hope in Christ, no matter what the outcome?

The sermon was based on Rick Warren’s, Purpose Driven Life, with the outline taken directly from the book.  It was straight law.  The entire message was DO MORE!  “What are you doing for God and the church?  Well, do more!  There is always more to do!”  There was no mention of the gospel, that Christ has died for our sins and reconciles us to a holy God.  There was no mention of what Christ has done for us, just what we can do for others. 

The pastor is modeling this doing by leading a mission trip to Cambodia.  This intrigued me.  Why is a pastor in Mexico, where people live in poverty literally within two blocks of the church, going all the way to Cambodia to do mercy ministry?  I wanted to stand up and shout, “What is wrong with the people outside your door that you must go to Cambodia instead of helping those down the street!”  This is the problem with the do more mindset.  It is not doing enough to stay in your neighborhood and help those in need.  You must travel to the other side of the world to do more there.  There are always bigger and more desperate places where one can do more.  Sure, Mexico has poverty but Cambodia is really in need.  That is a place where we can really DO MORE! 

It saddens me that American Evangelicalism has transported its shallowness to other parts of the world.  The point of this post is not to criticize this church.  These people are probably doing the best that they can with what they know.  As I said, I guarantee that they are more pious and spiritual than I am.  The problem is that they have not been exposed to a better way (the title of a very good book).  What the people of Mexico, and everywhere else, need is not a happy-clappy pretend that everything is fine even though I have cancer fun-fest.  They need the gospel.  They need to know that Christ died for their sins and that they are forgiven, even when they feel awful.  They need to know that their hearts can find rest in the Savior, even though their lives are falling apart.   They need to be reminded of the promises of God, even when it seems like He is far away.  I would prefer to see that exported, instead of just more American cheese.