Did You Enjoy the Worship Service?

 The first thing I encountered as I re-entered local church ministry was the lack of steady church attendance, which made gaining momentum nearly impossible. Growing from twenty into forty was so tricky! 

Jane and I planted our first church in a small SC town on July 4, 1976. It was just the two of us for a few months after the opening service. Gradually, people began to attend. Not many, mind you. We lived in a small town with no advertising budget, and both lived and worked jobs an hour away. But when they began to attend, they tended to be faithful. That was before "your best life now" and "bucket lists" became standard in the Christian experience. Heaven was a huge concern for even the young, and the steady pursuit of spiritual matters was easier.

The American church has long been on a downward spiral in attendance. COVID-19, which taught people it was not mandatory to be physically present for worship, and a cultural emphasis on individual journeys, has reduced regular attendees to a tiny fraction of the congregation. Of course, much of our preaching, which emphasizes finding your personalized dream journey, strengthens today's numbers only to weaken tomorrow as people search out the perfect church to help them realize who they are. So, the church's main occupation is assisting people to find what will make them happy. A common question asked after Sunday worship is, "Did you enjoy the service?" That is very telling.

Happiness is good, but in reducing everything to obtain it, what remains is a virulent self-ness that chokes out everything else. The pursuit of happiness is often run alone because it seeks its own. It leaves the seeker alone, while most are not hardwired to live solitary lives. You can see social media selfies, but they never feel the warmth of a lingering embrace. We need to belong. We need to feel necessary, even if that leads us through hardship and struggle. To disconnect from our community to be content is to invite boredom, depression, and death. From there, it is a short stumble toward suicide.

The Pulpit: Aiding and Abetting

And here's the thing. America's pulpits have joined the world's voices and are singing the same song. We lift our voices and add the word "real" to the much sought-after happiness. Whereas the world addresses each person's "authentic self," the pulpits of America join with "real authentic self." We want to Christianize the journey to true freedom by saying it's what you have been looking for and more! This strategy helps everyone find comfort as we all sing the same song and want the same thing. Everyone wants to be happy. The problem is that Jesus shows up but doesn't dance to that tune, leaving those seeking self-fulfillment hungry and having received enough of God to immunize them from more significant infection. How do we exit this maze?

Although the problem may seem small, what should we do?