What "Deal with It" can teach us about drawing people to church.

Refocusing to the Proper Focal Point.

On the hidden camera TV show “Deal With It” a mother is pranking her son at a restaurant.  She is trying to convince him that she has joined a cult and if she can convince him to drink the Kool-Aid known as the “Elixir of Freedom” she will win 5,000 dollars. 

During the prank she tells her son to hold her hands for prayer before the meal.  The young man says, “Mama, you ain’t never prayed for a meal.”  But obediently he takes her hands and she begins to pray to “Gregory”.

The young man protests and says, “Mama, you don’t pray to no Gregory.  You pray to God or Jesus.”

Even without a religious upbringing this young man knew the right focal point.

Over the last generation we have, with the best intentions, attempted to reach the un-churched with seeker-driven, worship services.  We have literally adjusted everything to meet the taste of seekers.  It has not all been bad, but the overall effect has hurt the church.  In some cases, we have dumbed down the faith, like the preacher who described the incarnation as, “It is like God became a dude and lived with us for a while.”  In some cases we have made the evangelistic efforts of the church silly, as in Christian, professional, wrestling entertainment.  We have even turned worship into a consumer product, as in the cases where churches cancel worship when Sunday falls on Christmas.  I believe there is a heart cry from people who have found that we lost something when we become seeker-driven. 

I can almost hear someone saying that I am out of touch and wanting to lead the church back to the days of boring worship and old songs.  We must not fall into the false dichotomy that the only options are boring and fun. 

Seeker-Driven, Hyper-Contemporary Ministry Isn’t Working

What I am saying is that for us to awaken from the slumber of a cultural faith we must, while understanding the culture, not be enslaved to that the culture.  Seeker- driven worship is that kind of enslavement.  This has really very little to do with music, but rather the focus and the driving force of our worship and our churches.  Please don’t give me the line that in order to reach young people we have to be young, cool, and hip.  That is bunk.  Its “bunkedness” can be demonstrated by the fact that we have, as a whole, never been so hip or so cool and we have never had a generation leave the church the way Millennials are leaving. 

What is the solution?  Let me begin with a couple of antidotes.

Last year, a friend told me about his granddaughter going to visit a sick friend in the hospital.  As she and her mother were walking through the lobby she pointed to the chapel and asked what it was.  Her mom explained that many times people who have family or friends in the hospital would go to the chapel to pray for them.  On their way out after the visit my friend’s granddaughter asked to go to the chapel and pray for her friend.  Once there her mom read, in hushed tones, a couple of Psalms and they kneeled and in quiet voices prayed for the sick friend.  The little girl prayed a long time for her sick friend.  Once on their way again the little girl said that she really liked going to the chapel and praying for her friend.  She concluded by saying,  “That was nice.  At church there is no place to be quiet.”

I had a conversation with a young millennial about his faith walk and church attendance.  He told me that he choose to worship in a church with a formal liturgy.  He was not drawn so much by the minister or the music but by the scriptures and prayers.  He wanted something deeper than what was available at the typical church.  It was the worship service built on slower, deeper, and more thoughtful process that drew him in.  He is not alone.  In fact, there is a bit of a revival occurring among the youngest of adults and it is happening outside of the seeker-driven church.  Many Millennials are hungry for things deeper and more meaningful and they are finding it in the mystery of the Universal church, not the local rehash of a trendy method of a mega church across the country.  (For an interesting treatment see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFbCPw6qzMA)

Here are a few suggestions that may help us find our way. 

Don’t try to “out-Disney” Disney.  Let’s stop putting our hopes on trying to turn every worship service into an ever, increasingly, fantastic event.  Your praise band will never be Chris Tomlin, you will never preach like Max Lucado, T.D. Jakes, Chuck Swindoll or you can fill in the blank.  No offense, but every preacher believes he is above average but half of us are not.  In an age when everyone with an IPhone can access awesome preachers and worship leaders we need to shift our hope away from being the next mega church.   We cannot be the greatest show in town so let’s stop trying.

Hear the word of God.  Where else will a person have the privilege to hear the words of the Almighty?  At times we have acted as if the Scriptures embarrass us.  Rather than acting as if the Word is out of date, archaic, and outmoded, we need to embrace the Holy Scriptures.  There is great power in the Word.  Extensive public reading of scripture gives it appropriate priority.  Try this twist, rather than having a band perform the latest song which may have silly, Biblically unsound or even heretical lyrics, lead the congregation in reading the Psalms in unison or antiphonally.  

Join generations in prayer.  One of the complaints I have heard about liturgical worship is that prayers are read and do not come from the heart.  I have heard a lot of “spontaneous prayers” that were the same Sunday to Sunday and clearly didn’t come from the head.  When we lead people in the ancient prayers of the church we have generations of great theologians and godly scholars helping us to pray.  There is a depth and beauty to the prayers that your congregation will find refreshing.  Taken carefully and thoughtfully you will find they are fresh every week.

Come back to the table.  Perhaps, most importantly, we need to return to the practice of weekly communion.  There is the danger that it will become a routine with weekly observance.  I recently attended a church where there seemed to be a rush to get past communion.  In this church it seemed to be without meaning.  Do we stop receiving offerings because there is a danger of it becoming routine and losing its worshipfulness?  I hesitate to put it this way, but it is the best metaphor my weak mind can produce.  If the remembrance of the Lord’s life, passion, death, resurrection and ascension is the focal point of our life and love, that love needs foreplay.  When we make the Lord’s Supper the center of our worship of our Savior then everything is about coming to that moment.  We have a locus for our lives, faith and worship that points to the only One who is a never exhausted source of worship and adoration. 

I love the church and I’m not questioning the heart and the motives of those who are moving the church toward contemporary/seeker-driven worship.  I will only say that as a preacher who pursued that path passionately I have discovered in worship that is quiet, simple and historic, Jesus became more alive and real and my faith grew dramatically.   I am not suggesting that we all impose on all our congregations a high church liturgy.  What we need to have is a sort of restoration of the early and historic church priority in worship and life.