Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Traditional or Contemporary Worship: Is That Really the Question?

For the past 20 years, mainline churches have debated the most effective form of worship: traditional or contemporary. Traditional worship advocates argue that traditional worship is the only true means of worshiping God. The liturgy, the order, the formality, the colors, and the symbols all direct our faith toward a God of order and history. Contemporary worship advocates argue that contemporary worship focuses on the personal relationship that is vital to real faith and that traditional practices are barriers to a modern culture seeking authenticity related to their personal experience of faith. This is not a new debate. It goes back to the days of the early church. Different Christians in different cultures all sought to live out their faith by worshiping in styles that were heavily shaped by the culture more than the scripture.

Here is an example of how culture can shape our understandings of sincerity: In North American culture, one is seen as more sincere in their thanks if they say thank you with more emotion. If someone gives me a card for my birthday, I say, “Thanks.” If someone gives me a new Lexus for my birthday, I say, “You’ve got to be kidding me!! Thank you, so much!!” - as I fall to my knees with tears in my eyes! On the other hand, in some Middle Eastern cultures a thank you has more meaning if there is less emotion.

When you couple our cultural definitions of what is a meaningful expression of thanksgiving and add in a healthy dose of cold, uninspiring mainline traditional worship (because the truth is many mainline, traditional worship experiences have been lifeless), you find a culture longing for something with more meaning. Since contemporary worship seems to lead us to a more personal and emotional way of worshiping God, many feel that contemporary worship may just be the answer to our need for authentic faith.

Now for the curve ball: What if traditional worship could be life-giving, personal, authentic, emotional, and heart-centered? What if traditional worship could touch us in the same ways contemporary worship has? Contemporary worship is not going away. I believe it will continue to grow and adapt into new forms that we cannot even imagine now. But I am also afraid that Christians are losing the living tradition and history of the Christian faith that helps keep us accountable to the Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience of our faith. Traditional worship should never equal dead, meaningless worship. As Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, one of the world's leading scholars in the history of Christianity, once wrote; “Tradition is the living faith of those now dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of those now living.” May we always flee from traditionalism!

However any church chooses to live out its life of worship, one thing must be central. It must be alive, vibrant, meaningful, and sincere while keeping a connection to the living tradition of the Church universal. Anything else is not true worship.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Reflections from 2009 South Georgia Annual Conference

Over 1,400 United Methodists from across South Georgia gathered in Columbus, Georgia for the 2009 Annual Conference June 7-10. It was a great time of celebration and worship as Bishop James King led his first conference in South Georgia.

The opening clergy session on Sunday night is always a contradiction in terms. While everyone is excited to see each other, the actual report of the Board of Ordained Ministry (the main business item) is always a yawner. I ask myself, “All of these preachers have a copy of this 20 page report and they are all writing down the edits and typos. I wonder how many of them will actually keep these reports more than 24 hours?” I’ve never been able to figure that out. As a good friend said, “It gives us something to do.” Important work is not always enjoyable.

Retired ministers were given the opportunity to share a 3-5 minute speech after the clergy session on Sunday. My friend and mentor, Mike McAfee, was the class act – 1 minute and 15 seconds of pure gratitude and selflessness. If every retired minister followed his lead, people would actually look forward to the retiree speeches. Unfortunately, others spoke for 15 minutes about everything, including pee (yes, urine). Retiree videos are the way to go. Synthesize everyone’s comments down to the best highlights – they save a few of the preachers from themselves. The almost two hour retiree speech session caused the ordination rehearsal to finish at 11:00 p.m. - unfortunate for those who had to practice.

Monday morning, Bishop King opened conference and preached a great sermon in a white robe. Thank you Bishop King for breaking the “black robe mandate” in South Georgia - I hope we’ll see more diversity reflected in our vestments under his leadership. Let’s see some albs, colored robes, cassocks, etc. Spice it up a little – what are we, Presbyterians? It was a great sermon Bishop and special thanks on your choice of dress.

Tuesday’s Day of Service was another great success. Methodists spread out across Columbus to help those around us. Unfortunately, it looks like South Georgia will not continue the Day of Service in Tifton, Georgia –not enough places to serve. I guess we’ll fill that spot with retiree speeches.

I would close with the importance of the Constitutional Amendments, which one would think would have been the high point of conference. Alas, no. The “rub of the green” (as we say in golf), came from a resolution regarding pastors owning their own furniture. Thirty minutes of debate later and we had a divided house. Separated by only 11 votes, the conference voted to re-establish the older system of pastors not owning any furniture. It is a sad day to see the conference so divided on such a non-essential issue.

What shocks and amazes me is that we couldn’t bring some sort of compromise to the floor of the conference. Why are leaders of stature and good mind unable or unwilling to bring a compromise to the floor? People are already percolating about the “resolution-to-change-the-resolution-that-changed-the-resolution” for next year. We need to stop the madness. There are more important things that need our focus and our energy. Our denomination is in decline. People need to know Christ. And the leading, most fervent discussion at our conference is about furniture? Shame on us that we can't lead change better than that. We all share some blame on this one.

Friday, March 13, 2009

ARIS Report 2009

Mainline denominations are in decline. That’s not a surprise. In the most recent American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) by Trinity College, the surprise is where the people have gone.

Like others, I’ve labored under the assumption that the United Methodist Church hemorrhaged members to new types of churches and new types of organized religious practices – nondenominational and emergent churches. People are leaving, but the truth is they are not leaving for other worship experiences. Something else is happening in America.

“Various Christian churches and groups gained 31 million adherents to total over 173 million but their combined numbers as a proportion of the population fell by 10 percent from 86.2 percent down to 76 percent over the past two decades.” (ARIS, pg. 3) Catholics and Baptists report gains over the past 20 years, but their percentage of the US population has decreased. Mainline churches (Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, etc.) have lost over 3.5 million members since 1990, and our percentage of the US population has decreased from 18.7% to 12.9%. Generic Christians (the term ARIS uses for non-denominational, evangelical, and unspecified churches) grew by 6 million adherents, but their percentage of the population declined by .6% overall. Every religious group, whether reporting an increase or decline, commands a smaller percentage of the US population. Where are the people going?

The ARIS survey found that Americans are becoming less Christian altogether. The challenges we face as United Methodists do not come from other denominations, other worship styles (let’s get over that, please), new religious movements, or even from other world religions. Our greatest challenge is an American rejection of organized religion altogether. The ARIS study “shows that the non-theist and No Religion groups collectively known as “Nones” have gained almost 20 million adults since 1990 and risen from 8.2 to 15.0 percent of the total population. If we include those Americans who either don’t know their religious identification (0.9 percent) or refuse to answer our key question (4.1 percent), and who tend to somewhat resemble “Nones” in their social profile and beliefs, we can observe that in 2008 one in five adults does not identify with a religion of any kind compared with one in ten in 1990.” (ARIS, pg. 3)

For years, mainline church leaders lamented the fact that members are leaving mainline pews for emergent and non-denominational churches. Many mainline churches have tried to become more like these churches to keep and attract members. According to the ARIS report, our focus doesn’t need to revolve around revamping worship styles to compete with other churches. Our focus needs to be on winning the rapidly growing number of Americans who are moving away from religion. One in five adults do not identify with religion of any kind. They are in the grocery line, on the golf course, at the movie theater – next to us everyday. It’s time to stop blaming other churches and worship styles. It’s time to get back in the fields – they are, and have always been, white for harvest.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Moving Forward

On the album, Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder, there is a powerful track entitled, “Pastime Paradise”. In the haunting melody, Stevie sings;

They’ve been spending most their lives
Living in a pastime paradise
They’ve been wasting most their time
Glorifying days long gone behind
They’ve been wasting most their days
In remembrance of ignorance oldest praise

The young are naturally inclined to look toward the future – most of their life lies ahead. As we grow older, the largest portion of our lives is behind us, which calls us to look back. If we aren’t careful, we find ourselves trying to live in the past at the expense of losing a vision for the future.

The future is always moving toward us, calling us to re-creation. This re-creation is uncertain. It demands change. “The only constant in the universe is change”, Heraclitus of Ephesus said. God may remain the same, but God doesn’t want us to remain the same. God desires that we continue to grow and expand. Since God’s work on earth is done through the church, I think it is safe to say that God is calling the church to grow and expand.

The church must never get lost “glorifying days long gone behind.” It’s a hard lesson. After all, what is the church if not a collection of faith-filled friends who journey through life together? The memories of the past are our connection to the saints who came before us.

Jesus said in John chapter 4, “look around you, and see, the fields are ready for harvesting.” There is much work to do. We will not succeed in this work if churches fight to remain more like museums and less like mission stations. We must be open to change – we must look to the future.

Paul wrote, “What we sow does not come to life unless it dies.” (1 Cor.15:36) For people of faith, death is not the end; rather, it is the beginning of new life. We may need to bury some things in the dirt, allow them to die, and allow God to spring forth new life. Let’s bury inflexible minds and allow God to open us to new voices that cry out for revitalization. Let’s bury routinized worship practices and allow God to open us to revitalize our communal practices. Let’s bury unhealthy attachments to names and buildings and allow God to restore a right understanding that the church is the people.

In one of my favorite movies, The Outlaw Josey Wales, a bounty hunter approaches Josey, “You're wanted, Wales,” he says. Josey replies, “Reckon I'm right popular. You a bounty hunter?” The bounty hunter says, “A man's got to do something for a living these days.” Josey looks back at him and says, “Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy.”

I agree. Let’s not live in the pastime paradise. Let’s move forward to a new future in Christ. After all, dying ain’t much of a living.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Kingdom of God or Kingdom of UMC

I recently shared lunch with a friend of mine who is a pastor in another denomination. We shared ministry stories together and then the conversation turned to denominations. My friend did share a penetrating insight about the United Methodist Church with me.

He said, “You know, as I observe the United Methodist Church, my opinion is it has one fundamental weakness.”

I thought for a moment, “Here we go, I have no doubt he will point to the theological dissention.”

My friend continued, “You may think I believe the biggest issue facing the United Methodist Church is theology. But I don’t think that’s your biggest issue. The biggest issue I see is that the United Methodist Church is more concerned about the United Methodist Church than it is about the Kingdom of God.”

That stung. I spent a few moments in my defensive posture and we shared some give and take. As I processed my friend’s compassionate criticism, I started thinking, I’ve learned through the years that when someone says something to you that stings, we should ask, “What is true in what they said?”

The United Methodist Church is guilty of what many large institutions all struggle with – the creation of a large, bulky system that takes on a life of its own. This large system can do great things – reach more people, provide more mosquito nets, send more flood buckets. But a large system also demands more resources to continue its existence.

In the coming years, our denomination will need to do some soul searching. We are a great denomination and we are capable of impacting untold numbers of people in our country and around the world, but I believe two things will need to happen for that to occur.