Reflections on a Violin and the Church

During a recent church staff meeting we watched a You Tube video of the most famous violin player in the world conducting something of a social experiment. He got his hands on the most expensive violin in the world, an instrument from the 1700s with an estimated value of over $4 million dollars. Going against the advice of his handlers, who thought he would be mobbed, he decided to go to a busy Washington DC metro station to play the six most world famous songs on the violin. Dressed in regular clothes, he gloriously played the songs as thousands of people walked right past him failing to even acknowledge his existence. Throughout the six song set, only one person dropped a coin in his case and only one person actually stopped to listen to him.

There are several parallels that can be drawn between the experience of this violin player and the Christian church. Our staff was asked to reflect on what we saw, and some folks were encouraged while other people were discouraged by the video. The encouraged people pointed out that in Christian ministry, we also have a powerful message to share with the world and we just need to keep on persevering even if the world does not appreciate us. The discouraged people shared how tough it is to be responsible for communicating the most powerful message of all time, and yet still billions of people don't get the message. Our efforts can sometimes seem futile when people don't pay attention to us.

I want to point out that there is nothing wrong with the reflections of my colleagues at the church. I originally thought the same things, but then I had another thought pop into my head that I can't seem to shake. In some ways, the modern church is like the violin player in the video. The violin player was used to playing in high places, in famous buildings all over the world. He had been comfortable sharing his gifts to entertain the rich and powerful people of society who could afford to make their way into such elite cultural events. In fact, his message over time had been kept so far away from average people or from poor and hurting people that when he finally went down to the masses they did not recognize him. This kind of thing happens all the time in modern churches. When the church becomes too much a church of the powerful and privileged in society, when the church keeps the most powerful message of all time to themselves, and when they fail to build relationships with the poor and underprivileged in society, then the masses of the world fail to recognize the message because the messengers were busy keeping everything to themselves. Then, one day the church tries to bring the message into the world through one time events or by temporarily jumping out of their comfort zones and the world rejects them because they have not known them.

As the body of Christ, we need to recognize this and repent. We have kept the message to ourselves, kept our gifts to ourselves, and then we wonder why countless people drive past our churches every day without recognizing what they are missing out on. Have we kept the church in high places, away from as much brokenness in society as possible? Have we built a bunch of country clubs for cultural elites? Have we catered to the powerful or affluent or elite people in society in order to be "successful?" How will the world recognize the transformational message of the gospel if we keep it to ourselves or if we fail to consistently go into dark places in the world?