The Uglification of the Church

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to The Beauty Disruption Podcast, and welcome new subscribers! This publication and podcast are completely listener and reader-supported. You are the lifeblood of this space, and your contributions through paid subscriptions make all of this possible. Because of my travel and work schedule encroaching on my writing time, I’ve extended The Big Forever Sale. Get 30% off forever. I appreciate your patience! Let’s get to it.

Introductory Remarks

Thanks for reading and listening. As a bonus, I’ve included voiceovers in all my written posts. Now, I’m going for it with the podcast. I will post free podcasts and special bonus episodes for all the paid subscribers.

Today’s episode is a thought experiment. Last week, on Instagram, I shared my experience at a conference where I gave a keynote address and led a breakout session afterward. In the breakout session, I talked with everyone about the scandal of beauty in culture. In my opening remarks, I made a tangential comment about how beauty vanishes from the Church—in the form of our actual gathering spaces and even in the format of the services themselves.

In this episode, I recount that conversation and ask: Does the church suffer from uglification?

I have attended and am attending a church like the one I discuss in this episode. So, the spirit here is not naked critique. I genuinely want to be part of helping the church be a beautiful beacon of hope in a world of chaos.

Links to Resources Mentioned in the Episode

Francis Chan: “If Jesus Christ had a church in Simi Valley, I bet you mine would be bigger.” LINK

Chan authentically shares his internal conflict, admitting to being “a little more popular than Jesus.” He recounts leaving his church temporarily to reevaluate his motives and the true essence of worship.

Challenging the Status Quo: Chan reveals his proposal to redirect a significant portion of his church’s budget to aid the poor, challenging the status quo of church infrastructure. Despite initial resistance, he emphasizes that true worship demands sacrifice and a profound concern for the needs of others.

Francis Chan: Rethinking Church

Good Order in Worship (NIV)

²⁶ What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. ²⁷ If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. ²⁸ If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God.

²⁹ Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. ³⁰ And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. ³¹ For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. ³² The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. ³³ For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.

Beauty: A Very Short Introduction, by Roger Scruton, Oxford University Press

The Master and His Emissary, by Iain McGilchrist, Yale University Press

The Beauty Chasers: Recapturing the Wonder of the Divine, by Timothy Willard, Zondervan Reflective