Authentic

One of the things that I loved about the church I was a part of in Detroit was that it was utterly authentic. When we sang, it wasn't the sound of angels, or even of a choir.  It was the sound of a doctor, a janitor, a grandma turned mom again, a German, an African-American, a heinz 57 white person, a college graduate, a post doc student, a man who never made it past 3rd grade....  It was the sound of us. No more. No less. We were off key and off beat. We mucked our way through the songs and some days it sounded good and some days it was just a sound. But it was always a group of people pouring their hearts out to God.

I thought of this authentic style of worship again today when the pianist fumbled over the music, the songs were kinda cheesy youth groupy songs, and no one clapped but me and Rob. I was a bit embarrassed because we had three groups of visitors and all I could think was, "They must think we're so pathetic!" And yet, what they were hearing was us, just as we are.  Granted, last week the music rocked, so it's not like we're always stumbling along. But today we were. It was us. Just as we are. No frills. Nothing fancy. 

And it struck me -- the buzzword among "cutting edge" churches these days is that they're authentic.  But ironically, the "cutting edge" churches in our denomination, the ones that tout themselves as being "authentic Christian community"s are the ones that pay professionals (often not even Christian professionals) to play the music in their services.  How authentic is that?

Another buzzword is community. There's a movement to build community within churches rather than just walking in, punching your card (so to speak), and leaving again. Our church doesn't really talk about community, and yet we live it. We're not perfect, but we have a deep rooted sense of our family-ness with one another.  And again, the "cutting edge" church in our denomination that we attended, where community was an oft used term and people thronged to the church to hear the pastor speak on the topic, was probably the church with the least amount of community that I've ever been a part of.

I suppose my point is that people can talk a good talk. They can speak of authenticity and community and it all sounds blessedly marvelous. But the proof of the pudding is in the tasting. And it's not necessarily something you can see in one visit to one event in our congregation. Community is something that you see over a period of time. Authenticity is something that you recognize as you look at the church budget, as you talk with the church members, and as you see people's words and actions in alignment over a period of time.

I appreciate that I'm a part of a congregation that doesn't just talk the talk. It walks the walk. Granted, it's a jagged, jumbled, scraggly, fumbling walk. But we're walking it, in all of our messed-up-ness and frailty. We're on the road. Authentic isn't really very pretty. It's plain and sometimes it's even awkward and bumbling. But it's who we are.