Surprising results from a recent Lifeway Research survey: 94% of pastors think their church will survive the next 10 years.
Well, that’s comforting.
No, it’s not.
The idea that we are in a place where church survival is at risk enough to survey the matter means that 100% of protestant pastors are thinking about survival, some seriously, but most think they and their church has the right stuff to make it another decade.
The churches I pastored are now 220 years old, 130 years old, and 125 years old. They are all doing well, although one had to engineer a merger to survive. So far, so good.
With the death of Pope Francis, the movie Conclave, and all the attention on the Vatican for the conclave to come in a few weeks, I am reminded how much I dismissed liturgy, dignity, solemnity and seriousness in worship in favor of humor, entertaining illustrations, and general lightheartedness. But I was young and filled with shallow ideas and frivolous thoughts.
By now, I’ve witnessed the most scandalous things in worship, levels of absurdity and silliness that are an affront to the Gospel, an embarrassment to Christ, and are destructive to the gatherings of the saints to celebrate the resurrection and worship a holy God.
You add your own examples but mine include: clown acts, sometimes involving the pastor (and sometimes involving actual clowns); pyrotechnics, animal acts (not for nativity reenactments), Harleys thundering over the stage, roller coasters, politicians offered with no pretense of their having anything to do with the worship of God; American flags covering up the cross of Christ in worship, camouflaged soldiers rappelling from the ceiling; music that offers no hint of anything to do with Christ, the Gospel, and worship of God. Then there are fire engines, ambulances, and anything else that the platform can handle structurally.
The counter to this is always, “Well, we attract and keep people with this. We’re big. You’re small. You should be like us.”
No thanks.
Yes, I saw the movie. I am not attracted to the hierarchy, apostolic succession, sacraments, or much of anything else Roman Catholic. But I do like dignity, solemnity, gravity, and seriousness. And a little liturgy might be refreshing, especially since winging it with cliches, snippy anecdotes, tiresome personal experiences, and boilerplate recycled stories have their own tedium. It’s no sin to plan worship, compose a prayer, and use appropriate music.
There are already enough rodeo clown acts in real life SBC stuff. Keep them off the platform on the Lord’s Day. If the mighty pastor wants to wear blue jeans, put an age limit on that – there’s nothing sillier than old guys in jeans.
