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9 Crumbling Evangelical Worship Habits 
What seems to be replacing them?


Beginning with fireworks

The "Big Bang" theory is not just part of the Creation debate, it's also about making too much noise, too soon. There was a day when starting every service with loud proclamatory calls to worship or even louder music was the only bona fide way of launching an Evangelical worship service (EWS). The conviction was that you had to wake everyone up to get them "in the mood" to celebrate. Today, the quiet approach is quite often much more palatable to beleaguered congregants. Rick Muchow of Saddleback Church says, "High volume levels are not a synonym for excellence or power."

Being excessively exuberant (and I don't mean Rick Muchow! :-)

In general, the big smiley presence that approaches people in a used car lot or, let's say, at an EWS, is losing ground to a more matter of fact "Hi" approach. Someone sent me an absurd, but very funny used car salesman YouTube Video and it made me wonder—do people see our overly rambunctious need to "sell" our faith as similar to the excesses of this example? One West Coast pastor told me recently that "The more like an Evangelical pastor I appear to be, the less efficacious my ability to evangelize will be." Dunno... Let's think about it.


Oversimplifying everything

Christians are often considered simplistic in their point of view on faith issues, and The Four Spiritual Laws do still make the rounds on university campuses in one form or another, much as they did in the 60s. However, these days many of this country's fastest growing churches are attempting to let congregants and guests know deeper truths about our faith. The Ortbergs, McDowells, Bells (big list, no time) are adjusting the less used "come to Jesus" style of speaking with a robust spiritual formation alternative. Peter Jones, writing in Inside/Out says, "Young evangelicals are rightfully in reaction against the oversimplified Christian Fundamentalism." 

Talking about "end times"

Let's make this simple—the great majority of non-Christians, and a substantial number of "Christian Christians" don't believe God could possibly love them. What's up with that! If we have been unable to convince our own that Grace pervades our beliefs and that God has done away with our shame, how are we ever going to attract new listeners to God's message of hope and salvation? Will there be end times? Most certainly, but sometime before we get there, we have much to do!
 
Being platitudinous

A child once said, "You have to stop that, because Jesus doesn't like it!" I think the kid was talking about endless platitudes spoken in churches. Would Jesus like our trivializing of God's unsurpassed power when we say something like, "God is good, all the time"—probably not. I still say that phrase frequently because it's true...all the time, but surely we can increase our verbal exclamation marks about God's greatness.

Making pastors into celebrities

Can you spell D-A-N-G-E-R ! 

Avoiding (at all costs) "earthy" vocabulary

I know many so-called "full alphabet Christians" who have taken to using their colorful lexicon in church settings. They are likely to say "D _ _ _  straight" when they just mean "Yes." Is that a good thing? Not so much...but in the modern world, even Christians are expected to know the words in common usage. Lead Pastor Mark Driscoll knows how to use them, and maybe we should learn from him, or maybe not. I kinda like it!

Using parables without also using contemporaneous stories to support them

A pastor recently told a sad tale in church about being put in jail because he violated a law that he knew was morally correct. He got caught! Was his story as electrifying as a whale swallowing Jonah? I'm not sure, but they were still praying for troubled folks an hour after church was over. Personal stories have great impact!

Taking more time than people are willing to give

When I was a child, we sometimes had church services that lasted for hours! In some parts of the country, they still do. That doesn't make it right. Respecting God requires us to respect people, too. Worship services are part of faith practices—not the whole thing!
I seem to recall saying this before...

Blessings,

Doug

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—Doug Lawrence, internationally recognized speaker, author, and advisor, helps churches assess and improve their skillfulness in creating engaging worship experiences by utilizing his more than 35 years of "deep trench" worship leadership in prominent mainline churches. You may reach him at dlawrenceconsult@mac.com. Or, if you wish, call 1-650-207-8240 for assessment information and scheduling. Doug now teams with the slingshotgroup.net to place extraordinary worship leaders in extraordinary churches.