The Christian church: Let’s be imaginative

If variety is the spice of life then surely imagination is the salad dressing. Imagination ought to be in the Christian church too.

Expressions which lit up prose and were once highly original – eg quick as a flash, clear as daylight, he wouldn’t hurt a fly…. have been copied to the extent they are now cliches.

So much of what happens in church is now a cliché; characterized by repetition, routine and a general lack of imagination. Many of our churches at ten am are duller than small-town Main St at four am. We need change.

Every church meeting has its “Jones’s” - always sitting on the third row from the front, next to the aisle. It’s as if they had a season ticket! In our locality is a church where the members sing from books. Though most have sung the songs a hundred times before and know them by heart, out of habit they still look at the book. An overhead projector might be more costly, but oh how it would vary the routine if used occasionally!

Church services are Sunday morning events simply because it has always been so. It is human tradition. Come to think of it, those who “do the town” on Saturday nights (then sleep till noon) might be more inclined to attend a church service on a Sunday afternoon and possibly be born again. Why not try it?

That great warrior for Jesus, Arthur Blessitt, started his evangelistic life by visiting Hollywood porno theatres at the interval and talking to staff and patrons. That takes guts, and also great strength of character – but it was imaginative. Then Arthur got the even more imaginative idea of carrying a huge wooden cross on roads around the world. It was a great attention-getter, and led to many being born again.

In London this writer saw a huge crowd in a main square watching three or four American evangelists. They wore long “Jesus cloaks” whilst whizzing around on roller skates; one preached the gospel as he skated. Imaginative and compelling.

There are many biblical instances of God’s imagination: a donkey spoke; the walls of Jericho fell at a trumpet blast as the Lord had said. It happened after the invaders had walked around the city seven times – itself a wacky thing to do; the Red Sea suddenly opened, giving dry passage for the fleeing Israelites, then the sea closed in to drown the pursuing Egyptians.

We read in Mark 1:6 how God used a “far-out” character in John the Baptist. “And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;” Weird? Yes, but God knew John’s heart, and was backing him!

So, pastors and ministers, let’s think about what is done every Sunday (does it have to be then?) and seek God for ways to bring more imagination into the proceedings and into the lives of everyone attending.