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.
