Wednesday, July 24, 2002
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Wednesday, July 24, 2002 |
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Are we ignoring church history? By JOHN HATCHER A certain malaise seems to hover above the church today. The church is neither hot nor cold. Leaders parade program after program to engage the people to get involved with ministry and discipleship only to learn about a new program that really does the job. You indeed would be amazed at the number of programs and products that are hawked to pastors with the promise of resurrection of a malaised church. Of course, the malaise pleases the devil. A teenager turns his life over to the Lord. The church yawns. The youth leader reports that ten kids rededicated their lives to the Lord at summer camp. The church yawns. The things that should thrill the church are putting her to sleep. I figure it has happened so, in part, because the church has finally become a well-greased, finely tuned religious machine. The church has become an assembly line. In comes a raw believer and out comes a dull disciple. As I read about the early church, they were always getting arrested by the authorities; they were preaching the Gospel among the cults and being stoned; they were holding all night prayer meetings and seeing people healed of life-long sickness and disability. The early church was the action center in town. Today, there's more activity at the pool hall or Wal-Marts than in a dozen or so churches on Sunday morning. We preachers are leaders of the Yawn Brigade. After all, we have seen too many of our number to upset the "apple cart" and be carted out of town. We want some stability. So, we massage our congregations with the message that God loves them and leave it at that. Hardly do we ever get in their face and tell them to repent and get the hell out of their lives like the prophets did. Like John the Baptist did. Like Jesus did. Like Simon Peter did. Like the Apostle Paul did. Let me offer an area where the church needs upsetting: we begin by examining our worship of the Most High. My word may be disheartening to some congregations who have just recently convinced their song leaders to sing of those new contemporary choruses like "Pass It On." However, many congregations have gone big time into total contemporary worship, comprehensively eliminating 2000 years of church worship materials. The word out on the street among postmoderns is that they want a more conservative style of worship that integrates a variety of Christian traditions. My generation (boomers) have held to a view of worship as market-driven, music-driven, and numbers-driven. Now, we find that we the boomers are the traditionalists and need to repent. We must repent of ignoring the music of church history. We must repent of ignoring the liturgy, the creeds, and antiphonals of the ages. When in Africa recently I worshipped at the All Saints Church in Kampala, Uganda. Their second of three services incorporated what the postmoderns are looking for: they had the formality of a procession, the informality of greeting and laughing, the music and drums of Africa, the hymns of the greats like Wesley and Luther, and contemporary praise choruses. The church needs a little shaking up. Worship should never be a performance to be watched, but an experienced to be had with the one true and living God. Worship deserves our constant attention. River's Edge Community
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