"Cheers" Church

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows your name.

You wanna go where people know, people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.

You want to go where people know, people are all the same;
You want to go where everybody knows your name.

Cheers Theme Song Lyrics
Title: Where Everbody Knows Your Name
By: Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo

This crazy song has been mulling around in my head on and off for a few weeks now. Ever since a lady at work said that she thought this should be the church's theme song. If anyone is young enough not to remember the sit-com "Cheers", bear with me.

She is somewhat discontent with her church. She has had a rough life and I think the church sometimes reminds her of that. Literally. I don't think they want her to forget where she came from. She so much wants to be right with God and stay consistant. I understand what she is looking for with this song. I don't think she gets much love and support from her church family. Recently she has struggled with depression and health problems. She gets hammered on at work all week. She just wants a refuge on the weekends. She tries to stay strong throughout the week; she wants a fill-up on Sunday. We all want to be around real people. People not afraid to admit where we came from. People to encourage us that we are headed in the right direction.

On the other hand, I can see where people would want (and do get) the format of the sit-com for the church. You walk in to see the same, familiar faces. It's a light atmosphere. Instead of people sitting around chugging beer, they all have their triple laté. It's a social club. They want to walk in and everyone in unison yells "NORM!" There's no pressure to conform to anything. You come as you are. You leave as you came. No strings attached. If you want to meet up later and chug the beer, that's fine too. What goes on outside isn't an issue. Which reminds me of a story.

I worked with a guy who had been addicted to pornography. His marriage was falling apart, not because of the porn, but it came out that he had several adulterous affairs...somewhere around a hundred. I was trying to help him piece his marriage and life back together (to no avail). He said that when he was in the midst of all of this dark lifestyle, he was in a pornographic movie store picking out a video. In walked his sons youth minister. They nodded at each other as a recognition that they knew each other and as a representation of an unspoken pact. It appears that these people never speak about who they have seen in these places to another person (not even to the individual). My first response was to ask why he allowed his child to go back under the direction of this youth minister. You don't know what he might be showing or doing to him. Second was what the last statement of the last paragraph made. What goes on outside the church isn't an issue.

I know I got sidetracked. I didn't relay this story to degrade youth ministers. I don't think all youth ministers are porno freaks and I hope I didn't portray that thinking.

Back to the topic. I'm not sure what precisely she's looking for in a church. Maybe she's in the "Cheers" church and she doesn't fit into the clique. Maybe that's the problem. I really don't think she's looking for a "Cheers" church. Maybe she's just discontent in a non-loving, non-benevolent, non-Bible preaching church like a lot of us are. What advice can I give her? Jump churches until you find your ideal church or at least something you can tolerate? Be a Puritan and stick it out hoping you can conform the church from the inside? Unfortunately, alot of people are in this situation and they stop going to church althogether. Some even give up on their faith because of the lack of purity in the church. Granted, their faith may not have been very strong to begin with.

Oh, well. For now I just encourage her when I see her. "Stay strong...Press on...Keep the faith!" I do pray for her when the Lord brings her to my thoughts. I hope she finds what she's looking for. I also hope that she doesn't put too much faith in a material organization. I hope (and I think she does) that she knows that Christ is the only one who will NEVER fail her.

Maybe this song will leave me alone now that I wrote this.

God bless!

“…holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:” Heb. 12:14