The Artificial Division Between Secular and Sacred

Santa at Emmanuel Enid

Like most 501 C-3 religious organizations that identify as "Christian churches," Emmanuel Enid does some things that are not necessarily proscribed by the Bible, but neither are they prohibited by the Bible.

For example, this past Sunday we had a photo opportunity for families with one of our pastors (David Camp) posing as Santa Claus. There were a few who wondered about the appropriateness of having Santa on the premises.

It's only a problem if people consider Santa Claus "sinful" (as did the Puritans). I'm ambivalent about Saint Nicholas. Being familiar with the original St. Nick, the modern version is a little silly to me, but cute if you have young children or grandchildren in the family.

As another example, we will occasionally play what Christians call "secular" songs for our announcement slides during the pre-service.

Some followers of Jesus might be "shocked" to think that a "church" would play "secular" music.

Most of those who are shocked have created an artificial separation between "the sacred" and "the secular."

Since Christians are the church, whenever a follower of Jesus enters any building, the presence of God is there.

There are some unique advantages for not seeing any division between secular and sacred.

Several months ago we noticed very few people were paying attention to the pre-service announcement videos.

So one Sunday, we experimented a little and played the song Let It Go from the movie Frozen to underscore the announcements.

An amazing thing happened. The instant Let It Go began playing, every child under 14 looked up at the screen and began paying attention to the announcement of a new AWANA children's program we were launching.

Maybe the artificial division between "church" (the sacred) and life ("the secular") put the kids to sleep while at church. 

Since then, we've been known to occasionally play Pharrell Williams' song "Happy" from the movie Despicable Me, or the Imagine Dragons song "I'm on Top of the World," or CeeLo and the Muppets song "All I Need Is Love." For the adults, we'll even throw in some Christmas music from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

I received a letter from a church member who asked some excellent questions about playing "secular" music in "church." Another person who watches our services online also wrote and asked similar things.

A summary of their queries include:

 (1). What about character of the artist that is singing?

(2). What about other songs that the artist may sing? 

(3). Though 'secular' music is enjoyed by all, should a 'secular' song be played in a sacred church service?

I responded with the following email.

Thanks for your kind email. I agree with you that the lives of some of the artists (including Pharrell Williams) don't always reflect Christian character. In addition, OTHER songs that the artist sings don't always reflect Christian values. We agree.

However, we think you'll find that many Christian artists have the same issues. Not always do Christian artists' lives reflect Christian character. In addition, there are SOME songs that are sung by Christian artists that we would not agree with theologically.

Nevertheless, our disagreement with the artist's OTHER songs doesn't necessarily mean we can't express agreement in the message of some of their songs.

Finally, it's our desire to not separate the 'secular' from the 'spiritual' (or sacred)."

Personally, we believe  in life and all life is spiritual - even when a Christian is listening to country music. We want people to feel that what you do in a church building is no different than what you do in a truck or car.

So if it's fine to listen to some country music in your car, it would be fine to listen to that same country music in a church building.

With that said, I'd suggest you offer us a country song that we can choose to play in the pre-service portion of our worship service for December or January.

We do go over the words of songs very carefully and discuss what is being said before the song is approved. If we feel there is something in the song that does not reflect our 'values' or mission statement, then the song will not be played.

I hope that answers your question!

I'd like to focus one phrase I used in the above email: - "It's our desire to not separate the 'secular' from the 'spiritual' (or sacred)."

The word 'sacred' comes from the Latin "to make holy." It is the root word for 'sacrament' which is something that 'is made holy' by a priest's blessing. To the religious crowd of the Middle Ages, the sacred was segmented from the profane (Latin: "before the fence"). Contrary to the New Testament teaching that the ekklesia is the body of Christ, and wherever we go, Christ is, Christians in the Middle Ages began to compartmentalize their lives.

The 'sacred' things they did occurred 'inside the fence' of the church (building) and everything else they did (outside the fence - i.e. 'profane') was NOT sacred. So, in the mind of a Christian during the Middle Ages, he could do things outside of 'church' that he would never consider doing 'inside' a church (building).

We think that divide between secular and sacred is artificial. Our belief, which we believe is biblical and inspired of the Spirit, is that if it is okay for a believer in Jesus Christ to listen to music outside a church building, then its okay for a believer in Jesus Christ to listen to the same music inside the church building.

Our kids listen to the music from Frozen.  Our members work out at the YMCA with Happy playing loudly as they lift weights. Our radio stations will play constantly All I Need Is Love this Christmas season, sung by Ceelo and the Muppets. If we aren't offended with the songs outside the church building, then there's no reason to be offended with them inside the church building.

We are the church.

We live life, and the presence of Christ in us makes this life very special.

As Michael Stewart eloquently writes:

Many people (wrongly) view their lives as divided into separate, unrelated parts. There are the parts that some view as secular, such as work, hobbies and recreation. These parts occur outside a sacred place, such as a church, and therefore are not related, in their minds, to faith. Then there are parts that are usually identified with a sacred place. A subtle dualism has developed among many people that divorces the sacred from anything that is considered secular.

Living out one's faith should be a natural overflow of the soul-stream within. Faith is interwoven into life, not reduced to a mere Sunday ritual. The principles of the Bible guide decisions, plans and actions.

This understanding of the unity of the sacred and the secular means, for the believer, nothing is secular. Everything one does, thinks or feels has something to do with God. The Bible presents a challenge: "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31).

The challenge is to live in the fullness of this unity. The marketplace and the church hold opportunities to fight the dualism of thought and live as a whole person for God.

Amen.