Rube Goldberg Religion

[Tom Wetmore]

Watching the Sunday Morning on CBS news program this morning gave me an idea. The program had a piece about a Rube Goldberg competition for engineering students to come up with the best Rube Goldberg machine to accomplish the simple task of hammering a nail. (Those unfamiliar with Rube Goldberg and a Rube Goldberg machine - read here and here )

The story noted that Rube Goldberg has become synomymous with his creations to the point that the dictionary includes his name as a term that means taking something simple and accomplishing it be means more complicated than necessary.

The idea that popped into my head was how Rube Goldberg-like religion becomes and how so much about Adventism has perfected (pun intended) the art of taking a very simple concept like the Gospel and turning it into a convoluted, intricate complex of interconnected machinations that all must work in perfect synchrony to reach the spiritual goal of life.

It is time we return to Jesus' own approach of taking that which is seemingly far too complicated and extraordinarily difficult to accomplish and making it amazingly simple.

The first inkling I had of this idea that we make things far more difficult than we should was during a study of Yancey's "What's So Amazing About Grace?" In our small group was a good friend, raised and educated in the Church, that is an extra-ordinarily skilled craftsman in mechanics and construction, but not so much academically inclined. He had virtually given up trying to understand all the theology and such as being beyond his comprehension. He had reached the point where he just felt he was maybe too dumb to save, because he just didn't get it. I saw the light bulb go on as the simple story of God's grace unfolded for him. It was amazing!

I have suggested to a couple pastors and would love to hear the sermon told more often to restore hope for those who have similarly given up, the sermon entitled "Am I too dumb to save?" Next in the series - "Am I too bad to save?"

[phkrause]

Yancey's "What's So Amazing About Grace?" That's an awesome book Tom.

[CoAspen]

Yep.....It ain't complicated! Bible/text study is great and enjoyable but it shouldn't replace or be made to feel that is the only way to salvation or basic understanding of the gospel. It seems quite often there is an other program/steps to......./ study group/etc, used as a method to start a fire, increase understanding, bring in more funds, or (fill in the blank).

A relationship religion is much more simple and needful, with others and God.

[Kevin H]

Wow powerful!!! Understanding the truth about hell and the issues of the great controversy would be useful. Two books I love are Paul Heuback's "Make it Plain" HEUBACH MAKE IT PLAIN: THE PLAN OF SALVATION MADE SIMPLE 1980; SOUTHERN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION

Also Richard Nies The Security of Salvation

Both books I wish were still in print, they are outstanding, small, clear and to the point.

[fccool]

I think you are right about "Rube Goldberg", and the metaphor works on many levels. The thing about Rube Goldberg is:

1) It's very interesting and enticing, because of all of the parts coming together in its own context. It seems almost "miraculous" due to its ingenious synergy of complexity.

2) It can also be seen as a waste of time, because all of that complexity accomplished very little in reality other than getting a wave of arrange things to go through their motions, making it appear as though there's some purpose for it.

I think that the saddest thing about the state of the Christianity today in general is the idea that all of these motions actually serve some greater purpose. I don't mean to demean anyone or anything in particular, because I'm very much a part of it and was the problem, until I realized why I need to stop... which made me realize why most people leave church. I am generalizing here, but I think it's more true than false based on my personal inquiry and observation.

Our church, for example, only meets for 3 hours out of the entire week (for the most part). Out of these 3 hours, 1 hour is spent on Scripted Sabbath-school discussion, which pretty much feeds you the answers to-down style, no matter how irrelevant these issue may be to your local church. Then half and hour spent saying a brief "hi" to people, before people sing for half an hour in a rather perfunctory manner . Then half an hour is spent on a children story, offering, and special music, and the final half an hour spent on sermon ("a word of God")

Don't get me wrong, but given that's all of the time that people get to be a part of the church for the entire week... we spend $3,500/ month to justify these 12 hrs of populating a building, in which we hardly accomplish anything meaningful. I'm being a bit cynical to make a point... but hopefully I've made it.

I'll give you a brief comparison - my company, which spends the same amount on monthly rent... and we manage 1.3 million users globally (which we've grown to for mere 2 years) for which we provide a service that they need daily, for the most part, free of charge.

So, that becomes a question that constantly hangs on the back of my mind as we "do church"... how can my company, with limited resources, and run by 4 part-time individuals, get more recognition worldwide, and get more use worldwide than my local church, that has far more human resources... and supposedly claims to provide so much more than any company in the world could?

Rule of any business - supply customer with their needs, and not merely push them a product you dress up as something they need. People's needs are very basic, and that's why they come to church - they need community, they need understanding and agreement, they need involvement and acceptance. For the most part, I really don't think that the current state of the church provides that in SDA structure of things. And no, you don't have to bring in a rock band, and stop opposing sin to do these things.

I'm not merely being critical. I'm am itching for my church to actually do something meaningful and news-worthy, other than letting people know that the end is near.

[CoAspen]

Interesting thoughts.