rel

Late this afternoon my wife asked if I would be interested in helping a friend of ours out by assembling a swing/glider that she had bought for her lawn.  I said, “Sure!”

So, after the temperature had cooled off a bit, Joshua and I grabbed my tool bag and set out feeling very manly for our afternoon adventure. When we got to our friend’s house, she had already unloaded it out of her van and carted it around to the area where she wanted it assembled.  I set my tool bag down and began to assess the situation.

We opened the box (finally) and began to sort like pieces together. Eventually we found the instructions, hermetically sealed in a package along with bolts, nuts and washers of various sizes. Finally we managed to separate the instructions from the shrink-wrap and we spread them out. For a moment I was afraid I was going to have to run back home and get either a French or Spanish dictionary. Then, finally, we found the instructions in English. Only problem was, (1) the pages weren’t in order, and (2) they obviously were written by an engineer for whom English was not his primary language.

After we had assembled the pages in the correct order–you know, step 2 follows step 1, not step 7–I began to try to read through them to see how complicated this would be. That’s when I knew we were in for an adventure.

Align the two Top Frame Bars (A).  Place one of the Steel Plates (Nk) on top of the joint of the Frame Bars (A). Align the two holes in the Top Frame Bars with the two holes in the steel plate. Insert two M6 x 65L Bolts (Nb) through the upper steel plate and through the Top Frame Bars. Align the two holes of the lower steel plate with the bottom of the Top Frame Bar (A) and continue the bolt through this plate and an M6 Nut (Nf). Don’t tighten completely. See diagram 1.

I couldn’t decide whether I was reading instructions or the table of periodic elements!

So…..finally we identified the Top Frame Bars (A) and the Leg Crossbar (C) and the M8×30L Bolt (Nc) and aligned the tabs in the brackets running an M8 x 75L Bolt (Ne) through a plastic washer (Nj) through an M8 Washer (Ni) and an M8 Nut (Ng), securing and tightening the nuts and bolts and covering with Caps (Nt and Nv).

After about an hour of trial and error punctuated by raucous laughter, we finally got our friend’s swing assembled.

Isn’t it often the same way in church?  When someone new trys to unpack the box called church, how easy do we make it for them?  What kind of instructions do we supply?   And what language are they written in?

Vince Antonucci, in his great book I Became A Christian and All I Got was this Lousy t-Shirt talks about his first foray into church life and learning about potlucks, puppets and propitiation all in one service.  In my own church we have the WOM, the NA, the AA, and a study group (that has nothing to do with the Bible). We have the IMB and the NAMB and the PBA and the BGAV and the SBC and the CBF. We have RSV and KJV and NIV and ESV.  Throw into the mix an ABF or some Alpha in the Foyer or Renovare on the veranda. We have Advent and Lent and Annie and Lottie and Alma and we might as well be worshipping a partridge in a pear tree for all the difference this alphabet soup makes to a newcomer.

Are we helping those who are far away from God get any closer to God by sounding like the assembly instructions from a Wal-Mart swing?  Have we made following Jesus so complicated that nobody much does it because nobody much understands it?

I like what Dallas Willard says: being a follower of Christ is living my life as He would live my life if He were me. (Not me trying to live His life long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away.)

Can we just simplify things?