Pub Quiz

Yesterday I went to a pub quiz with Anna and my parents. I've been to pub quizzes before, and I feel I can usually hold my own. Somehow this one was different. I should have read some of the signs, like being told one of the rounds last week was on 1950s music. On arrival we were introduced to our other team members. This led to immediately being abused by them for driving to the pub, proclaiming "Young people these days, they just can't hack it". I'm not sure what we can't hack, but I was so happy to be called young that I let it go.

Then the quiz began. It started with a picture round, where me and Anna performed quite well, using our 'youth' to provide a couple of answers and even a correct overrule. From there, things went steadily downhill. Even the sports round proved nightmarish for me, including questions on Raith Rovers, Scrabble and Croquet. By the time the music round came up we were defeated. Me and Anna hadn't said much to the team for a good while, and I felt the shame of our limited use. The team looked towards me when a 'modern' song was played (and I'm talking Culture Club here, hardly cutting edge) and I muttered that I'd only just been born. The final result was that we finished 7th out of 9, a poor result for a team that usually finished mid-table. Somehow our presence had made things worse, despite being the only ones able to spot Alexandra Burke.

I got home last night, and thought about the experience and how odd the whole thing was. The more I thought about it, the more the pub quiz seemed like so many of our expressions of church.

1. Being 'a regular'

Firstly, there was a real feeling of being 'a regular'. The teams take it in turn to do the quiz, and everyone knows each other. There are rivalries simmering below the surface, with teams noted for being poor markers (shame on them). Everyone sat in the same place, with the same group, and commented on how good/bad others were. Being sat there last night felt like I was very much invited through someone else, but I never felt like I belonged. So often in churches we can get into the place where new people feel like they're looking in on someone else's world and they're wondering if they're welcome. This sense of belonging can be exclusive, or really positive. The early church really knew community, and people joining would have had a real sense of belonging. I think deep down we all want that feeling of being valued by those around us, that Cheers feeling where everyone knows our name. I saw that last night, and I've seen it in churches. My worry is that it can often take so long to get there, and so many people drift away, feeling they've not broken into 'the group'.

2. Sound system

People were discussing the merits of having a new microphone and replacing the tape player. That felt strangely quaint, in a world where churches feel they need the latest sound desks/monitors/projectors/dancing monkeys to appeal to people.

3. The music

I didn't know any of the songs. I complained about that fact, demanding more modern ones, mirroring the argument that rages in pretty much all churches everywhere. In my defence, it was rubbish, one of the ones of 'my era' being Status Quo.

4. Pride

This is fundamental to any good quiz team. If you want to be respected you have to be confident in your answers so that people listen to you. The problem with that is it can become difficult when you're wrong. I corrected one of my team twice last night, and it didn't go down particularly well, like I'd peed in his chips. I think this is one of our biggest issues in churches right now. It's important to discuss theology and challenge our understanding of God and His word, but there are times when it just becomes a big petty battle about who knows more, much like a competitive quiz team. I wonder how ridiculous we must look to God at times, arguing about who is right and how much we know of Him when in reality we won't be able to grasp a fraction of who He is until we see Him face to face, and then we won't care who knows what.

Like a lot of people in church, I know some stuff about the Bible, but I feel I could be out-argued by a lot of people. Often discussions just become about who thinks they know the most, and stopped being about God at all. We use that to prove ourselves as worthy. If that fails, and we don't know as much, we turn to our morality as signs that we're 'in the group'. It becomes one giant game of belonging ("I don't watch this on TV", "Well I don't listen to secular music", "Well my car horn plays Shine Jesus Shine") until we've proved ourselves. There's something innate in us that makes us feel that we have to somehow earn the right to belong, that we feel we've got to have something to bring to the table or we won't have part of 'the group'.

I'm not sure of what to make of all this. I just know that last night there was a bunch of people who belonged in a group, and the pub quiz mentality is often that your prove yourself/blag your way through to acceptance. So often that's the way in our churches. It didn't seem like Jesus wanted much to do with that. He seemed to want to be followed by flawed people who were hungry to know God and have relationship with Him. Jesus didn't seem to have much time for people trying to prove their knowledge. His followers seemed a bit rag-tag at best. Rather than going to the clever or proud, Jesus seemed to go for the ordinary, the broken, the outcast. It seems to me like his message was one of acceptance, that God doesn't want to be impressed and that all are welcome.

As Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’(Matthew 22: 37-38). This year, I'm going to try and live my life by that. Like anyone else, I struggle to feel I'm accepted. I want to earn love, to prove my worth. Ultimately it seems like the important things to God are to have relationship with Him, and to show love to people. Sounds quite simple, but quite tough. Maybe if we weren't afraid to let the guard down, stop trying to prove ourselves and let our thoughts and actions be shaped by Him, we may just change our worlds.

 

Happy new year.