Choosing the Book over books

It was a pleasant and picturesque Sunday morning and I was sitting in a beautiful hall with 300 people.  We’d gathered with great anticipation to see and hear a fellow Australian speak. All about me were enquiring minds, sensible men and women, both old and young, who had chosen to spend their Sunday wrestling with matters beyond their immediate existence.  As I looked around I saw community spirit and great connection amongst these people.  You’ve probably guessed where I was.  But dare I say the name?  Yes, I was in church.

In an article written recently by Wendy Harmer, Masses find Spirituality beyond the Church Pews (SMH), Harmer says that our churches are empty. Instead, she argues, people are flocking in droves to writer’s festivals to quench their thirst for spiritual fulfilment.  But the death of churches is really such a tired old secular cliché.  The reality is far from Harmer’s caricature.  

Around the world religious belief is stronger than ever and here in Australia, sure, some churches have older demographics or low attendance but certainly not all.  Remember, there are lots of churches in this big nation of ours and I’d be surprised if every single writers’ festival was a thundering success.  But if Wendy’s sceptical then she is very welcome to come and visit my church to see just how different reality is.  

Mcrindle Research states, ‘Twice as many Australians attend church at least once per month (3.495m) as attend all AFL, NRL, ALeague and Super Rugby games combined per month (1.684m) during the football season’. It turns out, church attendance is even higher than our beloved sport.

Alright then, so much for the numbers, but what about the substance?  Will the occasional writers festival quench the desire for community and spirituality that most Australians seek? If writers festivals were held every week – would they be as well attended?  

Churches are places where true and lasting community is built. Friendships are formed. People take care and look out for one another. Can you get this level of community from a festival of strangers?  No matter how creative the authors, it’s hard to imagine.  Festivals are isolated events and every one has a different mix of people.  

I recently spoke about this with Scott Monk, the Australian children’s author of Raw, Boyz' R' Us, The Crush, Beyond the Knock-Knock Door, The Never Boys.  Scott says, ‘If people are hungry for spiritual fulfilment at writers' festivals, then they'll end up starving. Having spoken at festivals across the country for the last 17 years, it's clear that audiences go to get entertained, meet their favourite writer or most likely, find out tips for their own manuscript that they've got hidden in the top drawer. Once everyone has laughed themselves silly and the wine is polished off, everyone goes home back to their daily problems. There's no lingering community. No follow up. No sense of lasting friendship. Any community disappears just as quickly as sand in the hand.’  

In Harmer’s caricature church discussion is preoccupied with moral issues. Yet, in my experience church conversation is about everything life serves up.  Church is all about being involved in each other’s lives, caring, encouraging, explaining, discovering, laughing and sometimes weeping together.  I’m pretty sure the array of topics spoken about from up the front of my church is at least as varied as any writers festival.  

What Harmer gets right though is that Australians really are searching for intellectual and emotional answers.  The irony is that they’re unlikely to get them at a writers festival.  Scott Monk had some strong criticism about his experience, ‘If writers festivals were really intellectually honest and addressed moral issues, then they'd invite Christians to come to engage in their panels. But they rarely do. Instead, it's a one-way conversation, normally in favour of atheism.  But community and conversation, these are things which the church does well.’

It is quite hard to ignore that there are people searching for community which lasts. Rather than avoiding the church, how about talking to the people who actually go? Harmer thinks she knows about the church but her caricature of the church as empty or not even talking about all of life’s issues, does not give the whole picture.  If you want to replace true and lasting community of the church with a writers festival then I’m afraid you will be disappointed with the results.

I know that next Sunday there will be a place where I can go and find community. I’ll enjoy listening to the array of topics discussed and join in life and community with other like-minded people. The writers festivals will come for a day or two, they will close and you’ll go home with its memory quickly fading.

So, if you are on a spiritual quest but are feeling a little let down the recent Sydney’s Writers Festival then how about trying out a local church this Sunday?? You can see for yourself that churches are not abandoned, the pews are not empty, there are like-minded souls searching for and finding lasting community in church. Take a pew and you might be amazed and what you hear.