The other day the staff at Enid First Assembly had an impromptu discussion about how many christians aren’t very honest and the fact that we have trained people to think of the altar as the place you go if there are problems in your life. People don’t want to respond to an altar call at the end of a service because of the stigma that’s attached. The “church” in the past has beaten people into submission thinking that we have to be done with all our problems or issues, not giving any leeway for continued growth as a follower of Christ. I have been video taping “life change” videos for our church and I have found that people really are not comfortable being who they are with the issues they face everyday. It seems that when people get in front of a camera, knowing that the video will be played in front of the congregation they become religiously censored. Not by me or anyone in the room but by their training in the church. We’ve learned to pretend really well. I say this not to gripe or complain about the church, because we are trying to change that stigma here at Enid First Assembly. So what does this have to do with rock band? I’m glad you asked! I was thinking about all of this while a bunch of the college students were playing rock band in my living room. Understand, I’m a guitar player, so I’m not keen on playing a fake instrument when I could just go play the real thing. All of this triggered a thought. What if Jesus was a musician, a guitar player, mind you. Would he like rock band? The reason I pose this question is, Jesus told the pharisees that they looked good on the outside but were dead on the inside. He said they weren’t real, they had no substance. I believe we have become experts at rock band in the church. What I mean by that is we are great at faking a lot of things, going through the motions and pretending we are musicians when really we are only good at following things we see from others and doing what we are told to do instead of taking the time to develop the discipline of learning the real thing and becoming a real artist who shows uniqueness and creativity in the way they play. We, as followers of Christ, need to live the way God told us to live. Search the scriptures, be honest about who we are and what God has truly asked of us. We need to quit following what everyone and everything around us is saying we should live. We are ultimately accountable to God, not to brother and sister so & so. I know this is a bit of a stretch, and no I’m not against playing rock band, it was a quick thought that I wanted to write out. Let me know what you think about this quick analogy. By the way, I’m not against playing rock band. However, I will admit that I’m not very good at any video games but rock band doesn’t appeal to my sense of wanting to play the real thing.
