What a Lark

It's deep pondering time again. I read a satirical piece from Lark news.com yesterday.

LarkNews was founded in Denver, Colorado, in 1956 as the local church newsletter for Flatiron Community Church, but its breadth of stories stirred wider interest, and by 1963 LarkNews was being mailed to subscribers in 44 states and Canada. Since then the “little newsletter that could” has grown to 45,000 postal subscribers, and LarkNews.com now reaches potentially billions of computer-owners worldwide.

The piece I read yesterday told the story of a couple, Julie and Bob Clark, who (satirically) were stunned to receive a letter from their church in July asking them to “participate in the life of the church” — or worship elsewhere. “They basically called us freeloaders,” says Julie. “We were freeloaders,” says Bob. In a trend that may signal rough times for wallflower Christians, bellwether mega-church Faith Community of Winston-Salem has asked “non-participating members” to stop attending. “No more Mr. Nice Church,” says the executive pastor, newly hired from Cingular Wireless. “Bigger is not always better. Providing free services indefinitely to complacent Christians is not our mission.” “Freeloading” Christians were straining the church’s nursery and facility resources and harming the church’s ability to reach the lost, says the pastor. “When your bottom line is saving souls, you get impatient with people who interfere with that goal,” he says.

I wonder how many of us were in on the joke? I wonder how many of us understand there is no real joke here because it actually is quite true?

I also read a piece from the same group of deep thinkers that pointed out a small group from Life Baptist church met during the week, but the members have no memory of seeing each other because they were staring at their smartphones the entire time. “I thought everyone else was keeping up the discussion,” says one woman who successfully ‘Liked’ fifty-five posts and finished two games of Words With Friends during the 90-minute gathering. “I guess no one was.”

Here's the real deal, folks. Freeloading Christians do actually strain the church and small groups that do not dig into the Word are as real as rain. Funny how we never notice these things.