VillagePastor

What A Sociologist Taught Me About Church

I’ve just returned from a conference in Denver, where we interacted with Cynthia Woolever, who is a sociologist with the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. She has made it her mission to study religion in America, with particular emphasis on what makes for growing churches. Like most pastors (every pastor I know anyway), we want to know as much as we can about the subject. I have always appreciated Rick Warren’s point that churches are organisms. It is their nature to grow, so if they are not growing, the challenge is not to discover what will make for church growth, but what the impediments are. I could grow wonderful gardens in Oregon, but my gardens failed in Holland. The seed was the same, but the impediments of a very sandy soil and shady deciduous trees did them in. Just like a visionless church and people guided by form over function will kill growth every time.

At any rate, Dr. Woolever gave some surprising and not so surprising results of her research. First the five unsurprising:

• Growing churches are really good at embracing new people. And new people come for lots of reasons, the major one being they are invited. Obvious stuff—and yet many churches operate as if the key is good advertising (only 6% are impacted by this).
• Growing churches encourage participation. New people are fast-tracked into meaningful ministry roles. They avoid putting people through lots of hoops, or, as I have sometimes witnessed, temporary probation.
• Growing churches are committed to a future. The leadership, beginning with the pastor, believes the best years are ahead. They really believe this, and convince those they lead that this is true!  Because it is.
• Growing churches are very intentional about reaching kids.
• Growing churches invest in a great website. Way to go Village!

Now for five surprises. From Woolever’s research, here is what she discovered:

• While the US is becoming more religiously diverse, more than 96% of the 330,000 “churches” are Christian. Other religions still comprise a tiny percentage, but they get the attention of the media.
• 38% of worshippers have a college degree. In fact, it is easier to get the more educated than the less educated to come to church.
• Location is not that significant. People are more interested in coming to a place, not a location. We give way too much attention to location, and not enough to contextualizing our ministry to the place God has put us. Her point - a congregation can achieve strength and effectiveness in its present location. Another point--churches do not necessarily grow because they are in a great location.
• Some of the fastest growing churches are not new, recently established. They are older, established churches, who have taken their traditions and structures and adapted them continually to the new wine of Jesus, as well as emerging culture.
• The quality of the sermon is the main reason people come back, followed closely by warmth and friendliness of people. Scary stuff for pastors. We better make sure we get it right.

In fact, we better pay attention to everything we do, and do it well, in the strength and power of God, and by His will and for His glory, for fewer people are going to church. While our vitality supercedes most countries, less than 22% of Americans attend church each week. And this figure is declining.

The Worship service I am Looking For

One of the assignments I give my worship class each year is to find a church outside of their tradition, attend, experience, and give a brief account. Each year, the students come back with fascinating reports. Lisa came back with a description from a Shabbat service at a Messianic church, where the pastor wore a fake beard and antlers to commemorate Purim. Tim attended an African America healing center, where the stage became theatre, while Steve visited God’s Place for the Transformation of This City (how is that for a name?), where people were slain in the Spirit and a demon of pornography was cast out of one of the members.

The experiences ranged from large church to living room church. Brian attended a house church, where much of the service amounted to a prayer walk. Some of the visits included churches where liturgy was a central component. In some visits, there was less planned liturgy and more spontaneity. In a couple of cases, it appeared the pastors did not come with a clear word, but allowed the service to set the agenda, responding to what was occurring, bringing a word of prophecy for the moment. One student described the preaching as the pastor “moved in the Spirit” to lead the congregation in a time of “salvation and freedom.”

While I am impressed with the variety, the realization that on any given weekend there is so much that occurs in the name of worship, I am depressed by the apparent lack of respect for preaching in most churches today. Almost every year, I find myself hoping one student will stand up and say something like this…

“I attended a most unique worship this past weekend. As I approached the church, it was clear they had a high regard for God’s creation, both in the way they maintained everything around them, as well as the high regard they had for creative color, the use of flowers, and the art on the walls. I immediately sensed that when I walked into the foyer these people truly loved each other. And yet, they were anything but a closed family. They more than noticed me—they genuinely cared I was there. And as I observed their discourse, there was incredible connection going on, that transcended chit chat. Their spiritual gifts were being unleashed in a most incredible way. The hurting were receiving mercy, the weak were receiving strength, and the confused were receiving discernment.

I also sensed that while the foyer was a place of entrance, it was also a place of transition, you had the sense these people were making a move from the world they had been in; they were preparing to enter sacred space. Once inside, it was clear there had been an intentional movement from foyer to nave to sanctuary.

The singing drew me in. There was clear intention in every component of worship. Announcements were kept to a minimum. We were all engaged, involved in everything from prayer to singing to readings. Everything was moving towards something. Anticipation was in the air. Nothing was random, though one sensed it was not so structured that there was no room for the moving of the Spirit. Something of God’s presence was felt right from the start, and the way we were seated spoke more to community, less to audience.

Before we got very far in to the service, the pastor spoke. It was clear that Word was a central part of worship, and it was clear this was not about him. He came as a prophetic voice, having truly waited upon God. He had no agenda but God’s. He had no message except the Word he preached. There was no doubt he was faithful to the rigors of exegesis, not that we were in a Bible study. There was contemplative exegesis behind this message. He was preaching the intent of the text. This was a rare event. Much of the preaching I am exposed to seems to use Scripture as a launch pad for the pastor’s own agenda. Not here! The preaching unpacked the text, but more, God and Spirit seemed to team up and speak directly to the issues that needed change in my life. It was not that he made the word relevant; he revealed the relevance of the Word. I was both comforted and made uncomfortable. I felt both reassurance and dis-ease. God was penetrating into my heart, and in all of this, I was being drawn to Jesus.

When the preaching finished, there was only one thing I wanted to do: Respond. And respond we did! You could tell the worship leader and the pastor were in sync (it was also clear they genuinely enjoyed each other). The music moved me to think even more deeply of what the Word had declared. All I could do was process the message, and with each song, it took me deeper in that journey. What I really liked about this worship was that music was only one vehicle of response. Coming to the table and entering a fellowship with Jesus around the bread and cup were the high point. This was truly sacred space. And incredible as this may seem, the offering of resources felt like a great privilege, not something rote. I could not do anything less than give sacrificially and generously. My only thought was, ‘How can I advance the kingdom?’

Things came to a close - well sort of. It was clear these people saw this as merely a corporate act, and what happened here needed to continue all week. We were not dismissed. We were sent out to live Christ, release the indwelling Christ. And it took a while to get out, due to all the ministry going on afterwards.

I think I will be back.”