Houston, Do We Have A Problem?

I remember sitting through Apollo 13 when going to the movies was still relatively cheap and fun for that matter. I had never heard of the story and was hooked from lift-off onward. I remember holding back tears of joy when the boys finally returned home. What an incredible story of danger, heroism, and joy.

One of the scenes that has always stuck out in my mind was when the families of the pilots came to NASA to sit down and watch their husbands on closed-circuit TV. The astronauts believed that they were on LIVE national TV as they sped toward the moon. Much to the wives surprise, NASA officials informed them that none of the networks were carrying the broadcast and that they would be lucky to make the evening news. In a word, NASA had become irrelevant. The race to the moon was over, the USA had won that battle years ago when Neil Armstrong took those first steps and uttered those famous words. America, and the world for that matter, had moved on. Going to the moon was as common as the new millenium's reality TV. The world would not tune in until the men's lives were in danger and NASA admitted those now infamous words, "Houston, we have a problem."

I wonder if the AMERICAN Church is in the same position as NASA. As we take our trips to the moon every week through Sunday Worship, the sacraments, the programs, the youth ministry, the house churches and so on, I wonder if the American really cares about our mission. Is there a problem in the American Church? What are we doing on Sunday mornings? What are we doing throughout the week? What is our purpose? Has the American Church become "one and done" on the Lord's Day? Do we have oxygen spewing out of our life support tank while we thrust towards a goal that no one cares about?

Let me demonstrate my point with an every day example. Take a minute one day and just step out and ask your neighbors, friend, family member, or random person what they think about "church". Then ask them what they think about God. What about Jesus? Chances are, in America, they believe that there is a God, believe that Jesus has something to do with this God and that Church has nothing to do with either one of those "beings". What the church does on Sunday morning and throughout the week is like NASA taking another trip to the moon to collect a bunch of rocks that have already been examined.

Maybe the American Church needs to take a look at itself and wonder, "what are we doing here and why doesn't anybody outside of the club care about what is that we are doing?" These questions are being asked in the seminaries around the country. What usually starts in the seminaries will eventually reach the members of the church. Is something broken in the American Church? Do we have a problem?