The other day, some friends and I met, to celebrate a birthday. We were just five, so we immediately started talking about this and that. But one came late. Now, he could only sit and listen, hoping to get enough information, to become a part of the conversation. But his lack of knowledge was anticipated, so another filled him and he could join without delay.
Every joke is an insight joke. Even the funniest joke in the world, which was considered funny in a broad variety of cultures. And it goes like this:
Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator says, “Calm down. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence; then a gun shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says, “OK, now what?” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_funniest_joke)
Even that piece of macabre fun, that seems to appeal to a vast amount of people, needs certain knowledge to be understood. Guns, cell phones, emergency services. To just name a few. As a part of a culture, that has all of that, it is difficult to picture the millions of people, who can not call emergency services, who might have problems, even understanding that joke. We are so immersed in our surroundings, that we have a hard time, seeing things from an outsiders perspective.
In church, you can often hear the preacher say “you all know the story”. (Or “y’all know the story”. Depending on where you are.) And yes, the average person there will have heard most of the stories in the Bible a few times. But I hope, that the statement is wrong for most of the churches. If there is only one visitor, who does not know it… The underlying idea is also, that the audience knows the Bible almost as well as the preacher. But that, I fear, is only true, when the preacher doesn’t know it either. I have spoken to tons of faithful Christians (including wives of pastors), who have not read the entire Bible cover to cover. That is understandable, since the Bible is a difficult book to read. But that means, we can not assume, that even long time members know all the stories. Even among them, there will be someone, who has never heard about it.
Two shoe manufacturers plan to expand their business to the same country. So each sends a representative. After a few weeks of market research, the first one calls his company. “The market is very small. Only three precent wear shoes. That does not justify our investment.” The other one also calls his boss. “The market is enormous. We have to invest immediately. Ninety seven precent are not wearing shoes and need some.”
The key to this story is ‘target audience’. While the first company sees itself as a provider for those with shoes, the second company focuses on those without. And way to often, churches have their own members as their target audience. The main purpose of the service is, to please the old crowd. And sure, those guys have heard the stories in the Bible often. We even assume, that everyone grew up in church („as you have learned in Sunday school“). But that painfully reveals, that we are not trying to go into all the world. At least we don’t expect them in our services. We form a secret society with secret rules, secret rituals, secret knowledge. Yes, we allow outsiders to tag along. But they will have to figure out all the secrets all by themselves. What is with the standing up? What is with the lifting of hands? What is this? What is that? We are so used to being a part of this club, that we loose the outsiders perspective. (That starts with simple things like, where the bathrooms are.)
I once read a quote from the reformer Martin Luther. (I tried to verify it. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful so far. So it might be wrong. It is still good though.) He basically stated, that Sunday morning services are for non-believers. During the week, you can meet as believers. But this one service should focus on the outside. If it was Luther, then he said that in the 16th century, a time, when almost everybody went to church every week. Yet, he said, we should focus on those, who are not in the know. Tell them everything, that is necessary to understand all, that is going on. Don’t assume anything. (That is one of the reasons Luther wanted a German Bible for German people. The average farmer just didn’t speak Latin. How should they have a relationship with God, if they didn’t even speak the same language?) But, let’s be honest. Preaching to those who know, saves time. You can go deeper, when you don’t have to explain everything. Why waste five minutes to retell something, when you could use that time to impart more wisdom. But for those, who don’t know, what we are talking about, we did not waste just five minutes. We wasted the entire sermon. We concentrate on our members, while the target audience is forced to sit and listen, hoping to get enough information, to become a part of our secret society. They might not want to do that. So, I think, a few minutes of explanation, once in a while, are well invested, to get those outside to meet God. And after all, that’s what we are called to do.
