Superficial Churches
By: Corbin Wright
Have you ever sat in church and wondered with all your church activities over the years, whether you have really grown in Christ or not? Have you really matured over the years since you became active in your own church? I started to become active in my church in 1958 just after my marriage to my first wife. I basically sat there taking in all the surroundings, and absorbing all that was fed to me along the way and becoming more and more active in church activities. I became a Deacon, an Elder, a Treasurer, and Chairman of many committees along the way. But after about ten years of this, I felt something was missing. I felt that there was something superficial about this congregation. We would talk about the weather, about what we did last week, and maybe about what we felt about other people. But we never seemed to talk about personal stuff, about what we felt about ourselves to each other, or how we really felt about other people and empathetically communicating this directly to them. In other words, we didn’t seem to be moving in our growth. So I decided to do something about this.
I wrote a personal confessional in the church newsletter using language that one doesn’t normally use in a church. The minister was new and wanted to see the church grow, but was inexperienced as to the possible repercussions of the journey I was about to take. Well, this blew the roof off the church when this publication came out. So many people were quite angry with me. In fact when I was planning to move down to Argentina 10 years later, a community leader who was helping us sell some of our furniture, and who had nothing to do with our church, said to me “Oh, you’re the one who caused all those problems in that church.”. So the word got out even among those in our neighborhood who were not even connected with our church, that something was happening there. In any case, many were upset with me, but those who actually knew me applauded me, because they found themselves growing within themselves as a result. They told me so. At the same time I helped initiate a growth group in our church where we could share our own personal feelings about various things. Whoever wanted to belong to this group could. This group proved to be quite helpful to a number of those who joined.
One thing I learned while in this group though which is very important for the Church to consider. And that is, there are two basic reasons why people come to church: 1) THEY WANT TO GROW or 2) THEY WANT TO FIND ACCEPTANCE AS TO WHO THEY REALLY ARE. And this was the place that they felt might give them this satisfaction.
But what has this got to do with Superficial churches? I’ve discovered that since I did my thing many years ago, I have continued to do my thing, whether I’m on the Board or not, in the most effective and comprehensive way I can envision, if something disturbs me with what’s happening within the church. If nothing changes as a result, that’s OK. I know I did my thing and as a consequence I never notice whether there’s any Superficiality in the church or not.
A Biographical Sketch
I was born in New York City in 1931, grew up on Long Island, graduated from Roanoke College
in Virginia with a BA in Political Science, and from New York Theological Seminary with a Masters
in Religious Education. I became a committed Christian in 1958, and after a number of years became
a committed Ecumenical Christian. I worked as an accountant in various companies for about 25 years in New York City, then moved down to Argentina and worked for about 20 years as a Business English conversationalist teacher with some of the top managers. My greatest positive life-changing experience occurred in the early 70’s when I became very active for about 3 years in a social nudist (both sexes) camp. I also became a Stephen Minister (trained counselor) while down here. Married twice (the last to an Argentine) widowed once, no children, one cat.
Corbin M. Wright