Jesus Christ Superstar and a Brand New Church

Last Saturday night I saw the Stratford production of Jesus Christ Superstar. The production has been getting rave reviews and is Broadway bound so I expected good things, but I was unprepared for the emotional reaction I’d have to the show. It was simply breathtaking.  The staging, oh the staging. And the music! The first few bars of Mary Magdalene singing Everything’s Alright caused me to tear up, doing that open-eyed blinking thing women do to try to preserve their eye makeup. I’m a worrier and these were major words of comfort. I was hooked. If the production had been a church service, I’d have been asking for one of those membership cards they pass our during the offering and a pen.

But, of course, it wasn’t a church and so the next morning, I headed off to check out a new church about which I’d heard good things. I’d heard that they were very supportive of those going through hard times, that the congregation was full of young families and the Sunday school program was amazing, and that the rock star teaching pastor likes to make his congregants think by posing all sorts of challenging theological questions. In hindsight, I was sort of expecting a daytime version of Jesus Christ Superstar. Surely that’s not too much to expect?

The congregation was vibrant, with lots of people of all ages. The Sunday School appeared to be equally vibrant and very well organized. The music was good — like, I’d-buy-a-ticket-to-see-them good. God bless the Anglicans, but at very few points in their services do I feel tempted to tap my feet or sway or throw my arms heavenward (not that I actually did any of these things at this new church either – those old C of E sensibilities die hard, you know.) The teaching pastor is a very dynamic guy and they handed out an outline of the sermon in advance so you’d get a sense of what he planned to say. Oh, and they didn’t just have coffee: think more along the lines of Starbucks.Yup. There was a  lot of awesome there. I read their 30 page statement of faith and then combed through the beliefs of the denomination. Yes, they believe in hell for non-believers, but you have to search for it so I don’t think it’s a primary focus. That being said, they had a fairly extensive book shop (they had a bookstore!) and I did not see any copies of Love Wins.

I liked a lot of what a saw and I’d be willing to give it another go. People’s hearts seemed to be in the right place. The sermon was a little disorganized – instead of covering all his points, the pastor showed us a clip from a home movie that had a tangential connection to his theme – but I would not have known he was off track had we not had the outline in advance. I don’t want to fault him for his preparedness. The sermon mainly focused on the limitations of another Christian denomination’s theology. His reasoning was sound and I’m all for comparative theology as an intellectual practice  - especially when it makes the place where you are sitting seem like the better choice. But it was a bit like he was telling the Cat Fanciers Society of Canada 12 reasons why cats are better than dogs. It’s an effective way to get a lot of heads nodding in agreement but I’m not sure it moves anyone forward.

My main beef, however, was that the service lacked reverence. Jesus Christ Superstar felt far more respectful to me than the service on Sunday morning. At this new church, I could not find a hint of a cross in the worship area and to me that felt odd. Now I realize I’m going to come across as a major stick in the mud here, but I also found the tone excessively casual. I’m all for dressing to be comfortable, but we were there to worship God, not paint the deck or do Pilates. To me, it did not come across as sloppy so much as it did arrogant. People used to quake in the presence of God. Now that we understand string theory and genomes and have iPhones and can text our questions to the minister, perhaps He seems less awesome. We can simple roll in wearing our yoga pants and sipping from our half-caf frappawhatsits and log in our time with Him before brunch. People dressed up a bit for Stratford because, well, it’s Stratford and that’s what you do out of respect for the institution. Jesus died on the cross for our sins; is it really too much effort to put on a decent shirt?

I truly don’t think that any disrespect was intended. I imagine that they are trying to adapt themselves to attract more people to hear the Message. And it’s working. The place is packed. There is also an argument to be made that by integrating our modern lives – with all the casualness and desire for comfort and need to text – into our faith, we will more easily integrate our faith into our modern lives. It’s the Everyday is Sunday sort of thinking I suppose. It seems to work for many.

I’m just not sure it works for me.

Advertisement