next-wave > church & culture: Grace drives an old school bus 'round here by Brooks Hanes

For weeks I shook my head as I passed by a nice new church in a nice new suburban neighborhood that recently purchased -- yes -- an old, ugly, and green converted school bus. The word "Bible" and other words were proudly sprayed on its sides. "My church group would never buy a bus like that," I snickered, "and if we did, we would park it away from the road, hidden from view."

In theory I should have been able to ignore the heap of metal at the church building because I know and do veritably love the Christians who purchased it. After all, I reason that since I will spend eternity worshiping with them, temporal life should not be a war over methods of evangelism. A son shouldn't kill his Dad's other son if he wants to please his Dad. Deep down, I know it is important that every church tell the Story, and not as important is the way they tell it. And, yes, I know very well that God's people driving an ugly school bus are still God's people; and because God approves, I must not only concede but rush to greet them in love!

So why do I hesitate to jump on the budget-Bible-bus-buying bandwagon?

One reason is that the bus is potentially offensive to neighbors. Day and night, that vehicle sits on all fours and stares into the living room windows of the large homes in its suburban neighborhood. It took neighbors about one minute to realize that the big green bus is misplaced; perhaps they view it as an eyesore reducing property values. One day the leaders at the church will realize the vehicle that was supposed to bring people to their building was the one of the reasons that the neighbors stayed in their beds on Sunday morning or chose to go to a non-bus church.

As well as being potentially offensive to neighbors, I must add to the former reason by saying that the bus is distracting. Why don't neighbors see the need come to hear the gospel at the church with the big green bus? Maybe they don't come for the simple fact that the church has planted a big green bus to stare into their living rooms. They are more than slightly disappointed that anyone would park an eyesore directly outside their kitchen window. They bought their homes to gaze at green prairies, not green buses. The church organization, in this case, is living up to its reputation as an interruption to life on earth, not a gateway to Life abundant. In brief, they were offended by the homeliness of the bride so they never got attracted to the holiness of the Groom.

American Churches: It's Jesus or Bus

The church bus is an American icon from the late 20th century. While there are plenty of churches bucking the trend, (i.e., many churches forego the purchase of vehicles of mass transportation,) it seems to me that the real issue here is more widespread: many church organizations create their own vehicles (namely, programs and worship environments) which in turn steer people away from Jesus instead of clearing the way for Him. Although they are nice-looking and freshly sprayed, essentially these churches build their own buses in the form of programs and systems. Here it's a bus; there it's a worship service. here it's a commuter van; there it's a kids' program.

For every church program launched with good intentions, there is an excuse lurking at the end of its useful life, ready to keep it on life support when it should die. There is a principle in real estate appraising that "more buildings are torn down than fall down." It says that when people care about the value of land, no building built on it is more valuable than the land. So they'll not wait for the building to fall down and they'll pay a bunch of money to see its life ended. This should be applied to systems and programs in churches nationwide. "More systems are torn down than fall down." Take off the stifling programs and let people enjoy Jesus.

Programs, systems and big green buses are tools to be discarded when not useful. How do we know when there is no life left in the system? Look at its fruit. When a worship service puts any bait on its hook that is not Jesus, it's time to deep six the service head back to the tackle box. When kid's club becomes the spiritual chopping block for talent and youth pastors by burning them out, it's time to rethink our system. I enjoy the way John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis put it. He used the God-uses-systems (and not vice versa) approach. On a Sunday when many of the youth workers were absent, he asked if anyone was being led by God to fill in for the morning so the kids would have a program. When no one volunteered, they completely canceled that particular youth program for the morning. There was no need to keep a system going just to keep it going. God didn't want someone to step up, and so the system was discarded temporarily.

There is a point in time when our goal of loving God and our neighbors becomes unattainable because of a subtle metamorphosis of our priorities. Our system works so "well" that it consumes completely the goals for which we created the system. "To have a system" becomes our goal. When the means to get people to the gospel (our systems and programs) become ends in themselves, we are calling an end to the gospel. In other words, in the business of developing our systems, we forget that the Holy Spirit can not be systematized. While lording a control system upon our church communities, we become less of a desirable target for control by God.

Un-Pimp my ride

Looking back at the history of the American church is like watching an episode of MTV's "Pimp My Ride."[1] The church used to be somewhat useful, a bit rusty and dilapidated as it met in warehouses, tents, barns, and homes, but as we look at it today, we are essentially the same people, but from the outside, there's a nice new look: namely, our huge, nice, new buildings. But the gospel -- the good news -- the story I've heard told so many times in so many ways -- is refreshingly simple when I strip from it all my clever methods of presentation. I hope that under the hood of our churches remains the Simple Story [2] without a complicated system to cover it, or worse, a complicated system and no Story.

I must include a caveat: while I tear down the use of an ugly bus, no means of transportation to the gospel can ever be better than the gospel. I refer to Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton when I think that if the journey is more appealing than the destination, what is the point of making the journey? The goal is always the goal; a system to get there should never overtake the goal. If we want to reach people for Jesus, fine; then let's reach people for Jesus and throw away the distractions. If we want to bake a cherry pie, so be it; but let's not get distracted and eat the ingredients, because not only do we become short of cherries for the pie, but our stomachs are full on something not as good as the pie. We must decide that if our means for introducing someone to Jesus is made to appear any more fulfilling than Jesus Himself, we may have committed a sin of idolatry.

On the other hand, if we consciously use a means to get people to the gospel that is offensive (the bus?) then we are just going to miss out on getting to share the gospel. The trick seems to be sustaining a commonality with society and establishing some sort of trust, because that's the way it is in America. People are tired of being teased; they want the real thing or at least to know what that real thing is -- without the systematic teasing.

Let's get back onto the bus and break it down to what's important. Clearly, the bus was purchased to get people to church to hear the gospel. And we all know that today in the USA, people just aren't going to hop onto the vehicle just because it pulls in front of their driveway with the word "gospel" on the side, like they would have in the tent meeting age. Today people are wanting to just get to the bottom line: they want to see under the hood. Therefore, the Church needs to be stripped again and again to its Engine: a tattered and torn misfit, someone who didn't come off so smooth most of the time and looking quite unsystematic, a.k.a., the Man of Sorrows. It's time we take the "pimped ride" and get it back to the honestly un-American Person from whom the church gets its life. It is the only way to avoid distraction.

Life after the bus

In the end, how can I get around the apparent problem of the big rusty green bus? It's easy. I need to see through the bus to the people riding it. When we have a big green bus full of people who need to know the love of Jesus, I need to be happy that it's full of people who have obviously neither been forced to enter nor offended by the bus. At some point I realized that if I could just imagine that the big green bus is invisible, I'm left with an amazing spectacle of a vehicle by which many people may hear the gospel. I can't say how many, but I guess God can use it any way he wants.

I think I'm a humbler guy after getting over the bus. My acceptance replaced angst when someone told me that the bus driver's name was Grace. Today, I readily admit that my attitude was sinful, and that seeing this bus was daily fodder for pride: "I am different. I am better. I can think of ministry in a new, postmodern anti-bus sort of way." That's all changed now. I don't think I would ever have our church buy a rusty green bus, but I can accept that someone else in His kingdom deems it a valid way to get people to hear the gospel.

[1] In MTV's "Pimp My Ride," rapper Xzibit takes old cars ("rides") and overhauls ("pimps") the entire thing for free to an individual. In the end, the car is the same but most of the body has been re-done and the interior is filled with frills.

[2] The story is about a God who made people. The people then ran away from Him. He loved them so much that he had His son killed for them, and now He lives in waiting for His creation to return to Him.

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