Ok, so this might hit a little close to home for some of us 'True Blue Presbyterians'. I am about as 'True Blue' as they come. My dad, my uncle, my grandfather, my great-grandfather, and my great great-grandfather all are Presbyterian Ministers. My wife AND my brother are in a Presbyterian seminary. Those are just in my immediate family. There are plenty other clergy in my lineage which would take too long to list here. I believe that God lives in Montreat and I believe that everything should be done decently and in order. So, please understand that I know what you Presbyterians are going to think when I suggest what I am about to suggest.
I went to church this morning (well actually it was this afternoon at the 1 PM service) at Buckhead Church. Buckhead Church is what they call a 'satellite' campus of North Point Ministries. Their mission is to "lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. We accomplish this by creating irresistible environments led by skilled staff and volunteers." And let me tell you, they have perfected it.
At first glance, this church seems to be an evangelical organization that accomplishes its mission using 'Christo-tainment'. They have lights and video screens and a hi-definition video playback of the sermon. There is a band with 3 guitars, 2 vocalists, a drummer, a keyboard player, and a percussionist. The sound system rivals that of the Georgia Dome. Before the service begins they even have announcements running on the screens like they do at the movie theaters. If you close your eyes long enough, you can almost smell popcorn (j/k).
However, after sitting through the entire service I have a different perspective. What they have accomplished at North Point Ministries is they have figured out that the church most evolve to keep up with the people. They have figured out what people in the year 2005 want in a church and they are doing it. Now, I am no theologian (that is why I am supporting my wife in seminary instead of attending seminary myself) and I am sure there are some issues with their theology that just weren't apparent to me in the 1 service I attended, but they are making disciples of people while the 'Frozen Chosen' is cutting programs.
I believe that we (this 'we' being the PCUSA 'we') need to take a closer look at how we do church. Look around and tell me what part of our church seems successful right now. Some of you may say 'no part'. I may be biased because I am so deep rooted in the youth part of our church, but I believe that the youth programs of our denomination are the most successful parts of our church. So, if we are bringing so many youth to places like Ghost Ranch, Montreat, and Triennium, why is it that the number of members is dwindling?
I suggest it is because we do great worship services at those places and then these youth come back to their churches after college and it is like they have traveled back to the 1820s when TVs didn't exist and especially things like 'sound boards' and 'powerpoint' and 'praise bands' weren't in worship. Now, I am not suggesting that we put a powerpoint screen in every sanctuary, nor am I suggesting that a traditional service is bad. What I am suggesting is that we (again the PCUSA 'we') should be building some churches like Buckhead Church in big cities and give this new style of church a try. We can even preach our own reformed theology and have umpteen committee meetings if we want. What we cannot afford to do as a denomination is stand by and watch as our members die and do nothing about it. God called us to be fishermen of people. He didn't tell us that it had to be in a sanctuary with an organ and stained glass with a person in a robe reciting creeds that no one really understands. He simply said go make disciples. We should do that anyway we can.
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5 comments:
Hey, dude!
I don't disagree with you. After four days of worship like nothing I've ever experienced (at the middle school conf. in Clinton, SC), I'm a believer that some of our worship routines could use a little udpating! Unlike many folks, worship has never been where the rubber meets the spiritual road for me...it's always been in doing service, teaching, and building relationships. But, the MSC worship experience has changed my outlook quite a bit. I think what I like most about "contemporary" worship experiences is the "come as you are" mentality. Just come as you are....a child of God!
The only thing that bugs me about this issue is that it seems to me to be about "numbers." It's a common way of thinking in today's church that if your church isn't growing, it's dying. I know I'm an idealist and not much of a business mind, but I still don't think it's just about the number of butts in the pew.
So, to make my point, I quote a UMC minister I met a few weeks ago:
"To me, it's a biblical issue. Jesus said to "feed my sheep" not to "count my sheep.""
I agree with you about numbers. I have never been one that thinks a church is succesful or not based on numbers. However, my concern is not really about getting new members (although that is something we should definitely focus more on and that we currently do a very bad job at), but my concern is at keeping the members we have.
As I said, we do a great job of getting Youth excited about God (I will refer to your post for evidence), but then these youth go off to college and we do a terrible job of campus ministry and then we do an even worse job of young adult ministry. Further, we then expect them to sit through a boring traditional service when what they crave is a more contemporary experience.
Look at schools today for an example. The schools that are excelling and are producing the scholars of the future are the schools that are teaching kids using new technology. These schools have figured out that the old method of drawing on the chalkboard really bores the kids of today because they have all grown up as part of the 'Nintendo age'. These schools are meeting the kids at their level.
Jesus met the woman at the well at her level and by doing so expects us to reach out to people at their level. I am suggesting that our current method of worship is not meeting the young adults (and when I say young, I mean people between 18-40 years old) at their level.
So, I agree with you, we should feed the sheep and not count them. But, if we continue to offer the sheep the same old mush that we have been offering for the past hundred years when the new sheep grew up eating some new low fat mush that tastes like candy, we are going to eventually run the sheep off because they will find something that tastes more like candy at some other evangelical feeding trough or even worse at some secular feeding trough.
If anything, my experience at the two Montreat conferences I just attended taught me that liturgy can be done both "traditional" and "contemporary" at the same time.
What I mean is that at Montreat, we had all the markings of a "contemporary" service. Instead of bulletins, we had screens and PowerPoint. Instead of organs and pianos, we had guitars and drums.
But we still had all the markings of a "traditional" service, too. We had a processional. We had a call to worship, a call to confession, an assurance of pardon, the Word read and proclaimed, and the Word responded to in the form of offerings and sacrament.
The two worlds of "contemporary" and "traditional" intersect and join in harmony at Montreat, and I think that is one of the things that makes worship there so powerful.
What I see as one of the downfalls of the mega-churches is that they abandon liturgical patterns that the church has used for two millenia. And one of the downfalls of "traditional" churches is that they refuse to open the liturgy to new expressions of the traditional worship patterns.
Remember, there was a time when "Lift High the Cross" and "Be Thou My Vision" were brand new tunes. In every sense of the word, they were "contemporary." And churches experimented with these new tunes and embraced them, and they became a beloved part of our tradition and were passed down through the years.
I think that God gave us wonderful gifts of musical interpretation, kinesthetics, and artistic expression, and it's a shame that many of us do not use the full range of these gifts in our worship.
That's one of the reasons that Montreat was good for my soul. It was like a breath of fresh air in worship, but it still felt like we were connected to the traditions and history of the saints that came before us.
Just my $0.02.
Grace and peace,
RB
Dude, are you ever going to update this thing? I mean, come on!
I've been thinking about this all week and the only conclusion I've come to is that church needs to offer variety! Like you said, Jesus met the woman at the well "where" she was! Maybe the challenge of the contemporary church is to be willing to meet people where they are..with more options for worship! Keep the old as it is but also create the new! As Ryan said, the basic organization of worship can remain...but the packaging can change!
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