Why Beyond Sunday? Humanity!
An introductory series exploring why it's important to forge a path for the other 167 hours a week.
This selection from a Robert Hayden poem broke something within me.1 In the way a cocoon breaks to unleash a butterfly. I felt vulnerable, as though something new was starting that I’d not experienced before. And also liberated, like everything I’d accepted as “the way things are” could be different. But before I go too far, let me remind everyone why I’m doing this:
Creating spaces for people to go Beyond Sunday together.
Most American churches focus the majority of their attention on a weekly gathering designed around worship songs and a sermon. This event is usually around 1 hour (unless you lean charismatic… where services can be much, MUCH longer) and often follow a similar formula from week to week. Many reasons make this the norm, but by and large it is an incredibly effective and efficient way to inspire and lead a large collection of people. For more than 12 years I’ve witnessed first-hand how awe-inspiring this approach can be; thousands of lives changed and immeasurable Kingdom impact. It is good.
But Beyond Sunday is not that kind of expression. Nor is our community in competition with this dominant expression of church. Beyond Sunday is something different, not just in experience but in purpose.
In my initial intro post, I talked about why this community values IMAGINATION. At this particular moment in time, engaging our sense of wonder and “what if?” is a key to spiritual growth and renewal. Being satisfied with the religious status quo can be detrimental to our souls.
Our second WHY: humanity.
That may seem kind of… basic. Or overly simple. In Jesus-centered communities, isn’t embracing humanity implied? Yes. But sometimes these foundational assumptions can be overlooked, undervalued or just plain taken for granted. In this current era, especially since COVID, I’ve seen a desperate need for spaces that value the inherent worth in each individual, first and foremost. In other words, our humanity.
Here in America, we are a society of size and scale. Everything should grow and get as big as possible. We seek to expand successful things to their limit and beyond.2 If your restaurant is successful, franchise it. If your start-up grows, take it public. If your church is fruitful, then figure out how to extend its impact and influence: Build a bigger auditorium, start another site, go on tour. None of these things are inherently wrong or unhealthy. However, this can be dangerous because the nature of scale is about abstraction. Zooming out to see the biggest picture, which inherently ignores the specific. Doing what’s best for the most. Abstraction allows you overlook the individual needs of those you know in the name of the greater good or bigger impact or better result. Scale pushes you to prioritize efficiently meeting goals over the inefficient acts that develop individual relationships.
We desperately need expressions of community that honor our whole selves. Spaces that value each unique individual for their God-ordained worth. The Imago Dei. Nothing less than the masterpieces created by the Master Himself. This is especially critical for church spaces. Church can be the one place in our society where our value doesn’t stem from what we produce, but who we are. Holding space for the innate and inalienable value of each person is a foundational principle for Beyond Sunday. God’s people are not expendable.3
Unfortunately, through scale and abstraction some churches lose sight of a person’s inherent worth and begin to function in a dehumanizing way. Eugene Peterson puts it better than I ever could:
“Another common way to avoid community is to turn the church into an institution. In this way people are treated not on the basis of personal relationships but in terms of impersonal functions. Goals are set that will catch the imagination of the largest numbers of people; structures are developed that will accomplish the goal through planning and organization. Organizational planning and institutional goals become the criteria by which the community is defined and evaluated. In the process the church becomes less and less a community, that is, people who pay attention to each other, ‘brothers and sisters,’ and more and more a collectivism of ‘contributing units.’ ”4
I don’t want to stand by while people are treated as expendable. It’s not my problem to solve alone, but the best way I know how to critique is to create. That’s why I started a podcast and it’s why Beyond Sunday exists. It’s also why I’m inviting others along for the journey.
In Mark 2, Jesus teaches the religious leaders a valuable lesson that speaks to humanity. In one of their fruitless attempts to trap Him into blasphemy, the Pharisees criticize Jesus and the disciples for picking grain to eat on the Sabbath. This was clearly against the letter of their Law. But the ancient religious leaders, just like some in our day, diminished their compassion for people in favor of their systems. Jesus tells them “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”5 This is an issue of prioritization. What is more valuable: the person or the principle? Jesus’ answer, as it always is, is the person.
In this community, we embrace humanity. Beyond Sunday makes space for the inherent value of every single person, not as a touchy-feely, kumbaya dream… but to reclaim the intention of God’s Creation and Jesus’ commission to the Church. To paraphrase Jesus: Church was made for man, not man for church. At least in part because the church IS the people. We can’t forget that.
I randomly came across this quote on social media, and I cannot remember who shared it. But it absolutely flabbergasted me. Like, mind-blown emoji. So much so that I tracked down a collection of his poems, bought it and immediately looked it up.
A lot this connects to capitalism, but that’s another topic entirely
Content warning for charismatic language: This is actually a Word I got from God several years ago. I didn’t audibly hear a voice but God practically tattooed the phrase “My people are not expendable” onto my brain.
Eugene H. Peterson, “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society”
Mark 2:27
It seems that we’ve traded our common humanity in for consumerism and products. This post was really important. Thank you for the courage to write it, Jon! ❤️
This direction is a wonderful addition to our church!