Your Quality World

Everyone has what's known as a quality world-- people, places, and things that help you feel good and make you happy. We are genetically disposed to feeling as good as we possibly can, and we have pictures in our minds of what that looks like. And so, we pursue those things which make us feel good and happy. It's when we satisfy the pictures of our quality world that we are the happiest.

As I was thinking about this, I was struck by the realization that this is why churches aren't as full as they used to be. Church is not in the quality world of a lot of people. On any given Sunday morning most people are going to place themselves where they are the happiest, and that just might include sleeping in, hanging out with friends, going to the mall, or whatever.
Sunday morning church attendance used to be in the quality world of most Americans, primarily because most of an individual's social needs were met at church. The local church was the social hub of many communities and neighborhoods. But those days are gone, and most mainline churches are struggling to keep themselves in the quality world of people. They do the best they can to pull out all of the stops to give people a reason to hop out of bed and into the pews. Some churches have figured out how to do this, and so we've witnessed the rise of megachurches. Well-established churches watch with envy as people who used to occupy their sanctuaries are now flocking to the auditoriumesque settings, rock bands, and Jumbotrons of the megachurches.

But there are still countless others who don't darken the door of any church whatsoever because, while many of them believe in God, God is just not in their quality world for whatever reason. I think these are the people who see God as either a sadistic ogre, or an absentee landlord, or a combination of the two. And when they are presented with the opportunity of attending a church, they give a polite "No, thank you."

These are the people I want to talk to because the God they have been taught to believe in, and therefore avoid like the plague, doesn't exist. Honestly, the way I hear a lot of religious leaders talk about God would make me want to be elsewhere on a Sunday morning as well. If God is really the way they say then I would much rather be an atheist. I think I actually was for a while.

But I now know better than that. God is in my quality world and it would be devastating to me to take God out. I just can't do it. One thing I know for sure: if God is not in your quality world, then your picture of God is probably warped and needs some revisioning. If that's the case, then let's talk!