The Ken Johnson Group / March 15, 2006 Featured Article

Do you not see a niche for the "traditional" service?

by Ken Johnson

I write my articles and the Phantom Pew Sitter pieces believing that they will provoke thought in the readers and I look forward to some response either positive or negative. Regretfully, the people who read my newsletter are like many members of mainline churches who cheer for the football team on Saturday and on Sunday they are struck dumb. I don’t necessarily agree with all of the articles that I include in the newsletter, but I think that it is important to include a variety of thoughts for people to chew on so I include many ideas. For the most part I haven’t had anyone respond either challenging me or agreeing with me until now and I’m happy that someone finally posed some questions that I can respond to, and here they are.

Ken,

I am just wondering. Do you not see a niche for the "traditional" service? It seems that all of your articles on the Phantom Pew Sitter are very negative towards traditional services. What is wrong with tradition? It seems to me that not everyone likes the contemporary service with praise bands, dancing in the pews, etc. There are many of us who like and revere the traditions, the symbolisms of the service. I find that it is OK to let my mind wander for 30 seconds between parts of the service, to reflect on what I just heard, read or sang. It seems to me that a lot of contemporary services, and I have visited several large churches with praise bands etc, and they come across to me as a big production or entertainment extravaganzas. When does it cross over from praising God to entertaining the masses? Several years ago I went to [a] large Church of the Nazarene... The first time I went I was very moved with the music and the service. Half way through the sermon, the minister started crying and I thought how passionate he was about his message. I went two or three times more, and almost at the same spot in the sermon the tears started rolling again. I began to wonder how much was passion and how much was show, for the production benefit. How do we make that balance between the old and the new? I try to incorporate a lot of contemporary music in our services, because I like the words that are written, but I also like the old hymns that I was brought up on too, so I work hard to incorporate the old and the new. I'm not opposed to new ways of presenting the Gospel, but I'm not sure change for the sake of change is of value either.

Don

Hi Don:

Thanks for your email …you pose some very interesting questions and thoughts.

Yes there is a place for a traditional service in the church it just needs to be updated to the 21st century. The churches that I wrote about that were traditional and dying were that way because their services were to me like going back to my youth when the TV first arrived on the scene and watching those early shows in black and white. Everything moved at a slow pace because they only had two or three cameras and had to pick them up and move them when they wanted a different shot, and the filming technology wasn’t available that we have today. Those film makers can be excused for that because they did the best that they could with the equipment they had. In 2006 we can’t be excused for staying in the 20th century in how we present church because we have the expertise and equipment to do a better job. Many mainline churches are in that style and the younger people of the 21st century, who are used to a totally different lifestyle, aren’t interested in moving back to the 50’s.

Interestingly enough as I finished the last paragraph I received a call from a church that is one of those dying mainline churches that wants to start a contemporary service and wanted my help. I’m not sure what we will do—maybe they don’t need a contemporary service—but they do need some change.

One of my mentors recently says that every church doesn’t necessarily need a contemporary service they just need a contemporary church. That means a church that lives and thrives in the 21st century.

Concerning letting you mind wander for 30 seconds. Yes, that is good but it needs to be something that is part of the program. If it is because someone didn’t get into place at the right time and you have to wait for them to walk down the aisle or whatever then it’s disconcerting to the younger members of the congregation who are used to better production. Yes, you shouldn’t always have to cater to the younger people, but all you have to do is ask the question—Where will this church be in 20 years when most of the people currently sitting in the pews are gone?—and you know that something has to be done.

Not all churches need a Praise Band, although to draw younger people you need to have something that is contemporary. Becoming a contemporary church can be as simple as:

Getting the choir into the sanctuary with the people.
Maybe getting the choir out of choir robes.
Getting the pastor out from behind the pulpit and among the people.
Maybe even getting the pastor out of his/her vestments.
Having liturgy that is modern and up to date.
Using scripture that is in the language of the people.
Using hymns that are old and new but have lyrics that speak to the people—I love the old hymns, but you need to select hymns that speak to the people?
Moving the people together instead of having them spread out around the sanctuary. Block off the back pews. The church needs to be a close knit community.
Have a joyful service. This is the one thing that is missing in 100% of the dying churches. I do understand why—it has to be frustrating to come to church on Sunday morning and see a sanctuary that is less than one fourth full and 95% of the people that are there are in their 70’s and 80’s.
Include laughter in your service.
Make your services interactive—allow the congregation to get involved in the worship in other ways than just reading the unison and responsive readings and singing hymns.

I feel the same way you do about churches that do what you saw at the Nazarene church. The thing we need to remember as Christians is that God presents His message in a variety of ways so that message can reach as many people as possible, so I never badmouth any ministry I just say that isn’t for me. To me it is exciting how the Lord is able to minister to such a variety of people.

I would suggest that you visit Cherry Hills Community Church and Colorado Community Church either in Aurora or Englewood. It’s probably best that you visit Colorado Community in Aurora and see what is happening in your own community. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t always agree with everything that these churches are doing, but they are certainly ministering to large groups of people and they are definitely sending people out to minister to the world. Incidentally, one of these is the church that I have talked about in my Phantom Pew sitter articles that has changed from a choir ministry to star ministry in their music—I don’t like that, but I can’t argue with what their ministry is providing people in their community.

I honestly can’t tell you a time in words when it crosses the line from ministering to entertaining, but I can tell you that at Faith Presbyterian Church in the late 70’s and early 80’s we ministered every Sunday to over 3000 people and the denomination called us the circus church. Incidentally, by the time I left in 1984 we had just under 5000 members and most of those members were out ministering to the world. We had already started three other churches that had also grown. Faith was a traditional church that that did all of the things that I have listed above and regretfully the denomination, instead of asking what we did that made us successful, was jealous of our success.

The Mission of the church is; “…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1: 8b NIV and there is no way we can be witnesses to the world if we aren’t getting people into the church to bring to the Lord, teach and send out to the world. This is the Great Commandment and we need to live by it. If this is in the front of our minds we will never worry about continuing what we have done forever and letting the church die we will be concerned about what we have to do to minister to the people of the 21st century.

I tell my students in the Teacher Education Program at DU that if they have to go over to the corner, stand on their heads and whistle for their students to understand what they want then they need to do it. I also believe that as leaders in the Christian church we need to do the same thing. We need to do whatever it takes to fulfill The Great Commandment.

You check the health of the church not by how many people are coming into the church but by how many people the church is sending out to minister to the world.

Don, I’m sorry about the length of this but you posed such wonderful questions and thoughts that I had to give you some, I think, good ideas. Regretfully, most churches are afraid to ask the questions you asked. They are just into saying that the churches that are growing are just entertaining, not doing what we are. The only problem is that if the mainline churches keep going the way they are the church will be dead in a short period of time and neither you nor I want that.

Thanks for the thought provoking questions and ideas. I pray daily that the Lord will continually bless your ministry.

Ken Johnson

March 15 , 2006 Featured Article