What is Church For?
Recently the New York Times released an article about the Lutheran Church in Sweden. In an attempt to appeal to younger generations, the church began to include popular songs in their worship services. It was an important article for such is the anxiety of the church. How shall we appeal to the current generation of people? And like most anxiety it leads us down the wrong road. The vocation of the church is not to appeal to people as much as it is to serve them by equipping them. There are plenty of people still long for a meaningful church experience. Meaningful is something beyond appeals to popular music, pastors wearing hip clothing, or making the church a social hub. Many pastors believe that in order to serve and equip people the church must hold two experiences in tension. The first experience is that of traditional ritual. Our worship services and Sunday morning routines needs to familiar and even predictable rhythm. From the chaos of life, the ritual that is familiar can comfort and calm the body, mind and soul to deeper reflection.
On the other hand, what is incumbent upon the church that seeks to serve and equip people is to offer a refresh perspective on matters of life and faith. Too often the church dips into nostalgia to persuade and sustain the faith of its people. Nostalgia is deadly in a complex world. It’s little more than a temporary emotional high and romanticized notion of the past. There is a rigor to offering fresh perspectives informed by scripture and our life experience. It requires those gathered to think critically and contemplate their own power to decide and act in God’s world. At times, fresh thinking is an experience of discomfort in the midst of comforting ritual. But, when fresh thinking is engaged, there can be an experience of God making all things new within us. We gain insight and renewed awareness. We may not be perfectly equipped but we are strengthened for the work that our life requires of us. Within the familiar rhythm of Sunday morning worship, it is important that there are appropriate moments of agitation when we hear a call to modify our perspective, soften our will and be transformed for greater world in God’s world.
When churches are solely traditional and ritualized something like a lullaby descends over the church and it goes to sleep. When churches are only chasing the next trend, there is an anxiety that keeps the church off-center and askew of its purpose for God’s people. But when there is a balance between ritual and fresh thinking, the people are appropriately exercised for their work to be God’s voice, hands and feet in their relationships and in the wider world. It’s a privilege to serve in Waco amid so many congregations of various religious traditions who cultivate comfort and courage every week. After all, it is not so much religion’s job to appeal and hold onto people to sustain its own life. Rather, it is our job to equip people by comforting and challenging them that they may serve the divine in relevant ways that extend beyond our walls.
