Trevin Wax offers some provocative thoughts on how we should order our worship services.  He considers the place of national holidays for God’s multi-national church and ‘hallmark’ holidays for the people marked out by God.  His comments arise from a recent article in Christianity Today, which offered a variety of opinions on Mother’s Day.

He concludes his thoughts with a number of perceptive questions:

Why should the consumerist culture of the United States dictate what we celebrate as a church?

Why is it that so many American churches celebrate with great fanfare the birth of their nation (July 4) without even so much as mentioning the birth of the church (Pentecost)?

Does the way we order our time shape us as the unique, called-out people of God or merely reinforce our nationalist, consumer-shaped identity?

Trevin’s considerations challenge status quo evangelicalism, but that is why his thoughts are worth considering.  We should always be willing to examine our church practices by the light of Scripture.  Asking whether our church reflects or reshapes the culture around us, is an important prophylactic against watered-down Christianity.  For more on the subject, see  Trevin’s book, Holy Subversion: Allegiance to Christ in an Age of Rivals.

May we be Salt and Light churches refracting the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all that we do.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss