FIRST CHURCH FRANCHISE

     

FIRST CHURCH FRANCHIZE

 

      ”Shouldn’t there be a standard church for your Bible?”  “When you visit a church in a distant city, shouldn’t it be a clone of your home church?”  “What happened to the Church I remember from my childhood?”

 

      This from some Sci-Fi things I borrowed and rewrote.  Note this is a parody but also a parable. 

 

      What might a standard church be like?  Would there be a three-ring manual giving exact details of all the services down to the smallest detail?  Would all the churches (buildings) be clones of the pattern?  Sci-Fi writers ask what if a brotherhood of churches were set up as a franchise, much like the Fast Food Industry does.

 

      The entrance room of First Church is, of course, just like all the others in the franchise.  A picture of Evangelist Brother Billy-Bob is placed so you will see it as you enter.  A stylized picture of Jesus receives the emphasis.  A counter sits to one side, done up in fake wood so it looks like something from an old church. Behind the counter, an elderly lady sits, a flimsy sort of choir robe thrown over her shoulders.

 

       There's a little rack along the front of the counter bearing gospel tracts, free for the taking, donation requested. The lady types some stuff into the computer. The worshiper snaps her Visa © card down on the fake wood counter top; it sounds like a rifle shot. The lady pries the card up, then she swipes the card through its electromagnetic slot with a carefully modulated sweep of the arm, as though tearing back a veil, hands over the slip, mumbling that she needs a signature and daytime phone number.  Since cash and checks are no longer used, the collection must be taken up before the service.  (We are in a cashless society.  We are to “lay by in store.”)

 

Then it just remains for the “Word from On High.” But computers and communications are awfully good these days, and it usually doesn't take longer than a couple of seconds to perform a charge-card verification. The little machine beeps out its approval code. "Thank you for your donation," the lady says, slurring the words together into a single syllable.

 

       The worshipper hurried toward the double doors. The song leader had already walked to his place to convene the service. The interior of the church is weirdly colored.  Fluorescent fixtures are wedged into the ceiling.  Large colored light boxes simulate stained-glass windows. The largest of these, shaped like a fattened Gothic arch, is bolted to the back wall, above the pulpit, and features a waterfall pouring into a river basin.  The baptistery is placed beneath this.  The song leader announces the first number and the singing begins.

 

       Again, this is both a parody and a parable.  It is the worshipper who is being served and involved.  We NEED fellowship (koinonia), sharing and intimacy, in whatever form we choose.  “Let us hold on firmly to the hope we profess, because we can trust God to keep his promise. 24 Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good. 25 Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer.”  Heb 10:23-25 (TEV)

 

        See “Time For A Standard Church.”  http://cofcministrymanual.blogspot.com/