Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

2 June, 2007   comments: (0) Church History   The Relevant Reformation Restroom? They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and so I may be the only one to think that my own artwork is a thing of beauty. Regardless of whether this qualifies as 'art' (and there is no reason why it shouldn't, considering some of what passes as 'abstract art'), my Reformed rendition of the 'pragmatism potty' that we covered in a previous post, is at least worth a laugh. Mark this day on your calendar, it's a rare humor post on Old Truth! If you have yet to see the photos of the seeker sensitive church that rev'ed-up their men's room, you'll want to have a look at those first, otherwise you won't think this is very funny at all. Interestingly, that church's homepage used to be saturated with photos and verbiage expressing "just look how cool our men's room is", but all of that is gone now, after the story made it's way onto so many blogs and a Christian radio show or two. But I was just thinking, since so many of these churches behave as though Christianity is like Apple Computers (like it was invented by a couple of young guys, out of their garage, a few decades ago), they could really benefit from some historical reminders to the contrary. And since this particular church likes to use restrooms to communicate things, I put my novice artistic skills to work creating something that might communicate a little bit of church history right back to them. So without further ado, let me present the Relevant Reformation Restroom as a proposed renovation of their existing Pragmatism Potty. In this rendition, we have a mural of Martin Luther burning his papal excommunication bull, and there is a full theological library within easy reach; we've mounted a Puritan wall calendar above the mirror, and have installed some additional wall art of the Reformers. Last but not least, there's a TULIP air freshener by the door that will keep the place scented like a field of fresh flowers in 17th century Dordrecht. I suppose if I have to attend a church that insists on communicating a message to me through a decorated restroom, given the choice - I'll take this one. At least it will remind me that Christianity goes back further than Bill Hybels, Robert Schuller, and churches who take 'relevance' to absurd extremes. By the way, and all kidding aside, the real Pragmatism Potty recently showed up on a secular website that is dedicated to . . . to um . . . to bathroom dialog. Um, yep. Well, anyway - some of their comments let you know just what the world thinks of it all: "Our men's room gives members a reason to invite people to church," says [the pastor]. [a church member] agrees: "Too many people feel they don't belong. Our hope is that when a person may not necessarily feel welcome, he can walk into the bathroom and say, 'cool!'". Yeah. That's the first thing I do when I'm feeling unwelcome in a church... head for the [restroom]. With all those flames, if the pastor ever preaches on Hell, he could hold the services there in the Men's Room. Wonder what the Ladies' looks like? A roller-derby theme, perhaps? "That is what [our church] is all about: reaching those who have become disenchanted with religion, but are searching for a relationship with Jesus Christ." said [the pastor]. Hmmmm. Not only is it [expletive] cold in Minnesota, but they are all [expletive] nuts as well. And you wonder why I moved to the desert. And there you have a little glimpse of the sometimes-circus known as modern American Evangelicalism, and the reaction to it by a small cross-section of the 'unchurched'. As I occasionally say, "we laugh so that we don't cry", and in this case - we also make art! Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.676   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism