King of the Hill

I watch the animated series "King of the Hill" on occasion. I think that I have an affinity with the conflict between Hank Hill and his son, Bobby. Hank is "traditional," and Bobby is anything but. Hank has an "old school" and somewhat ridgid idea of what a man should be and do, and Bobby is much more eclectic... which frustrates, embarasses, and confuses the hell out of his dad. Nevertheless, despite Hank's desire to craft his son Bobby in his own image, Hank is conscious of the fact that he needs to learn to love and accept Bobby for how he is different. Hank's not perfect, but he holds the tension between teaching and accepting pretty well. And I like that.

There was this one episode of King of the Hill that almost perfectly captures this tension. In this episode, Bobby starts going down yet another path that causes Hank to roll his eyes, furrow his brow, and sigh with a frustrated embarassment: Bobby decides to dive head over heels into the Christian rock scene. Of course, Hank has a set place in his life for church and worship--on Sundays, in the normal pew, at the normal time. I think it's a Methodist church or something like that.

Here's the set up: Bobby thinks that church is boring, and he doesn't want to go. Well, Hank thinks that this isn't right. His son needs to be a good, moral, church-going person like everybody else in the Bible belt. In Hank's mind, part of being a good man is going to church. You don't go to church to be entertained; you go because it's the right thing to do. Well, Bobby doesn't so much see it that way. He thinks that it's boring, that it's pointless, that it doesn't really add to his life at all... so he gripes about going.

Well, Hank takes matters into his own hands, and sets up a meeting with him, Bobby, and the lady who pastors the church. The pastor suggests that Bobby start going to the youth group, and Hank excitedly agrees, thinking that this might be just what Bobby needs.

So Hank makes Bobby go to the youth group. Bobby reluctantly goes, and to his surprise he doesn't find Bible nerds but Christian rockers, complete with the long hair, the cross necklaces, and the Jesus tattoos. He falls in love with this subculture. He starts dressing like them, buying Christian rock music, going to shows, etc. He even joins their Christian rock band (the animist deftly portrays Bobby like the little person who traveled and sang with Kid Rock until his recent death).

And herein lies the rub: Hank was not at all expecting this. He wanted his son to be like him when it came to church... not deviant in a different way. So Hank shows up to the Christian rock show that he forbade Bobby to perform in (but that Bobby snuck out to anyway), and drags him off the stage--much to the consternation of his son.

On their drive back to their house from the concert, Bobby is turned away from his dad, looking angrily out the window. Though the dialogue from Bobby is terse and accusing, you can see Hank beginning to soften. He wants to teach Bobby something.

They get home, and Hank takes Bobby into the garage. He pulls out a box containing all sorts of different things from Bobby's childhood--things like skates, Ninja Turtle outfits, and the like--all of the different fads that Bobby had quickly bought into, and just as quickly left behind. Bobby is immediately disarmed by this walk down memory lane. And then Hank lays this on him:

"I don't want the Lord to end up in this box."

And Bobby realizes: practicing faith requires just as much care and concern as having faith itself. You can't simply have faith and then select any old way to practice it. Rather, how you practice your faith speaks volumes of what kind of faith you have.

Relevancy, affinity, and pragmatism must take a back seat when it comes to the selection of a ministry model, a strategy, or a worship style. They must take a back seat to the unchanging nature of the biblical truths and goals which they attempt to represent.

Examples:

Musical worship is not good because it is relevant, engaging, moving, or excellent. Musical worship is good because God is good, because he sent Jesus as a sacrifice for our sin, and because it musically represents those truths. Its relevancy must help the music to portray these truths. It must engage people to ponder and believe these truths. It must move people to realize the reality of these truths. Its excellence should awaken people to the excellent work of the cross and the reality of a God Come Down. When we evaluate worship, we should always first ask: did we, through music, effectively and accurately portray the reality of Jesus, his sacrificial work, and life in him? Only then do we even consider spending time on other peripheral goals.

Ministry models are not all created equal. They most certainly do not all equally espouse and further kingdom values and lifestyles. You can't just choose the one that "works the best for your church." I just don't think that our decision in regards to a ministry model is as easy as a trial and error process governed by pragmatism. Our task as pastors and followers of Jesus, in my understanding, is to proclaim the reality of the kingdom of God, teach people what it means to be a citizen, and model what life is like in the kingdom. There are real, concrete, unchanging, life-giving realities, truths, and principles that were established in Jesus's ministry, death, and resurrection. We measure our options of ministry models against those truths before we become pragmatic about the whole thing and look to things like how many people are coming to a worship service, are in a small group, or volunteering. In essence: before we ask if what we're doing is "working," we have to ask if what we're doing is working for the right goal: the establishment and furtherance of the kingdom of God. WHICH MEANS: we have to spend as much time familiarizing ourselves with what the kingdom is as we do with how we think it could be advanced.

And I think that's it for this one... at least, for now.