Is the Church Supposed to Be a Safe Place?

We're starting up our Transform (Confirmation) class this next weekend, so I was finding some ideas from other youth groups around the world for ways that teenagers can experience learning the Bible.  Of course each denomination is different and, certainly, churches have different priorities for what is important in their congregations.

But I was taken aback by one video of a Youth Pastor of a large church somewhere in the United States who was decked out in his youth polo shirt, khaki pants and cooler than cool wavy hair (this is envy rearing its head, mind you) and as he stared into the camera introducing his church and youth group his first words were these (I'm paraphrasing):

"Everyone who is watching this, I want you to know, if you are intending to bring your young people to our church, or even if you are watching this video from a different church, the number one priority that we want to tell our parents and kids is this:

We are a safe place."

At first when I heard it, I nodded and thought, Yes, this is the twenty-first century.  We have to make people feel comfortable in church, make sure that all of their stress and distress is completely wiped away, knock off the corners of the tables, don't run with scissors and make sure all risk assessments are done for any activity including the risk of consuming pizza beforehand.

But then there was something about that statement that started to bug me:  When did the church become a place devoid of risk?  Of course, there will be an assortment of people that will immediately think - 'You have to avoid circumstances where kids will be hurt.  We've seen enough trauma in that area from certain denominations which have destroyed the credibility of the Universal Church throughout the last hundred years.'

Correct.  As families come to the building known as 'the church' we should create an environment that doesn't jeopardise the physical well-being of the attendees, but if I'm thinking back to the time when I was a kid, a sterile environment, free of risk-taking would be the last place I would want to go to.  Would I really have wanted to play on a playground that had six inches of foam underneath and the tallest slide was made of plastic and reached a soaring altitude of five feet (and the greatest risk to my safety was the static shock from wearing a sweatshirt and touching the sides when I hit the bottom)?

I liken it to going to the bowling alley and putting up the bumper guardrails so that nobody misses any pins and never fails.  I mean really, what's the point?

What I liked about going to church when I was a kid was climbing to the third storey of the Sunday school rooms and then sliding down three storeys of railings.  I liked it when Mike Jordahl, during our crafting mural activity, stuck a piece of corn up his nose and they had to go to the hospital to tweezer it out.  I liked it when we played a game called Red Rover, running across the open field into a waiting group of kids holding hands and trying desperately not to dislocate someone's shoulder or give myself a concussion.

Some of this sounds like old people when they say, I remember when I was a kid - I get that, but in our physical safe age (which is important and we have to do it) perhaps we've gone too far in protecting adults and kids from actually struggling inside the church, especially spiritually.  We tell everyone who enters, 'This is a safe place, feel free to simply soak in the love of Jesus and then go home.  If you start to feel anxious, don't worry, we'll help you forget about it."

What's wrong with feeling anxious?  What's wrong with persevering through the difficult passages of the Bible (or better yet persevering with difficult people)? What's wrong with letting people take theological risks and working through them (maybe with difficult people)?  Why not a spiritual version of Red Rover where we take a step back and run as fast as we can at the connected hands of someone who holds an opposing view and see what happens if their argument holds true?  Can I join their team then?

That's part of the question as we seek longevity for the church: how can we have the church be a safe place to take risks?

When the early church was in its infancy as told in the book of Acts, there was no disciple standing at the front of the throng of people, with his church polo shirt and khaki pants, lovely styled hair, standing up and saying, "Please, come join The Way.  When you do, you'll find a safe place free of any danger, physical, emotional or otherwise.  You will fee a perpetual sense of peace and you won't have to do a single thing which will push you outside your comfort zone."  With a smile on his face, Peter finishes, "That's our main priority.  That you feel safe."

No Way.

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.  But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.  (Acts 8:1-3)

There was a real threat for real people to believe in a man who was not safe.  Jesus did not necessarily make people feel good about themselves (His first words were about repentance, remember?), but helped them see that they needed God.  As they believed in this revolutionary human who happened to be God incarnate, they recognised, in some way, that being part of the Church was going to hurt a little.  Jesus said it: take up your cross and follow me, not sit in your pew and escape.  Paul, the changed man who nearly destroyed the church in its beginnings, repeated it.  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  (Romans 6:4)

I think the mere fact that there was a sense of danger was a real cause for the early church to recognise the legitimacy of the message.  When the people experienced the persecution and when they experienced the risk for their faith, it tempered and hardened them spiritually to do battle against the evil of the world, while at the same time hearing and knowing the love of Jesus that sustained them.  If they simply had to sit in a safe building for one hour each week, remaining unchanged and unchallenged, would the early church have survived and spread?

My hope is that during our own Transform classes, during our worship, during our Bible studies, during our service projects that we can risk the pain of encountering new experiences that challenge us.  My hope is that we can allow the risk of talking about topics like gun violence, domestic abuse, gender fluidity, sexuality, speaking in tongues, the call to overcome greed, etc. so that we can be a strong light in the world for the next generations to see.  And when those who are seeking see that we haven't sanitised or sterilised the Law and the Gospel, and they see that this Church is not a well-cushioned playground or a bump-proof basketball court, maybe they will want to engage in the struggle of God's story here with us right now.

I hope you find that risk in your church this week.