Welcome to the Hotel California

I didn’t know for years that the Eagles classic “Hotel California” was about a drug trip...so I ended up addicted to it! It is one of those songs that just hearing the name takes me back to high school, basketball just for the fun of it and old flames. It’s also one of those that I find myself singing out loud and all day anytime I hear it.

So the reference in a podcast I was listening to last night was pretty awesome. Russell Moore mentioned a “Hotel California mentality” when it come to church. Yep, I’ve seen it, from the classic line: “you can check out anytime you want...but you can never leave.”

So, let’s sermonize it for all you little cheeky monkies.

I’ve seen “Hotel California” preachers: They checked out of preaching years ago, no new study, no new sermons, energy and life have been sucked out of them. They’ve been beat down so often by life and mean people that they just feel stuck.

Then there are the “Hotel California” elders: This is typically the pure hearted, God-fearing, church loving “Don Quixote” who has given till he can’t give any more and now just feels defeated. He has battled “that elder” for so long (sorry, just stating truth, it seems in my talking to preachers and elders across the land that most every congregation has “that elder”. You know, the one who steps on every sign of progress, snuffs out any hint of life, and accuses anyone who wants to see the church change even the most obvious of common sense changes of being a change agent) that he’s given up and doesn’t even know it. What he does know is what his experience has taught him will be the reaction to an idea before it is even presented. He’s mastered the sad art of back peddling and building disclaimers so well he is in the Hotel - he’s checked out - but can’t leave.

Finally there are the “Hotel California” members: They checked out eons ago but they can’t leave. If they leave, the friendships they have nurtured and alliances they have built, will write them off in sort of a spiritual disgust (i.e. “How dare you give up” or “How dare you leave us here to fight this battle by ourselves”). Or they’ve checked out but to leave and go somewhere their souls will be fed better or their faith built more strongly or their talents used more fully would get them labeled. Regardless, they can never leave. Listen, Paul left one place for another, so did many other first century Christians. I’ve helped many a Christian struggle with this question of when/if to leave. Some would say you should only leave a place if the church has become “too liberal”. That’s a mighty subjective standard. Also, if the first time something happens in a congregation that one perceives as being “liberal” all the “conservatives” leave in short order all of our congregations will be “liberal” with no one to fight for a more conservative direction. Some leave because “there’re aren’t any children here my children’s ages” or “there aren’t enough children here”. I’ve been on both ends of those statements, and, as a parent, always have understood it (side note here: there are advantages to your child growing up in a congregation with a lot of kids her age, but there are also so very rich advantages in them being a part of a much smaller group, even if they were the only child there. The secret is not in numbers but in godly parenting). Some check out over a slight, a hurt, a painful experience and rather than leaving, they just remain there, only “checked out” - there gifts and skills placed high on a shelve where they don’t benefit anyone or bring the glory to God that He gave those gifts to them for.

It’s never any fun to feel stuck. The grand new is it need not be that way. If possible check back in - “your Hotel California” was where you wanted to be at one point. Try to love it again. If not, you need to be somewhere you can serve the Lord with faithfulness and fruitfulness.