OK, here's an example of what I was talking about in the last posting.
Consider this great sentence from Walter Brueggemann about 1 and 2 Chronicles:
"in the context of Persia as a dependent colony of the empire, Judaism's only chance for freedom of thought, faith and action is through the maintenance of a liturgical practice and sensibility.... [Chronicles] shows Israel as a choir that sings its way through historical crisis." (Introduction to the Old Testament, 375, 376.)
Contemporary Protestants tend to sneer at Chronicles because its lack of prophetic passion and concern for justice. It's all about Levites and singers. Brueggemann is arguing that it was the Jewish ability to maintain a clear focus in the midst of adverse circumstances (colonization, marginalization) that ensured their survival and thriving.
The anxiety of discontinuous change has caused many churches to react by trying to assimilate (or be assimilated by) the surrounding culture in the hopes that it will create a kind of marketable relevance. In so doing, churches will tend to neglect the very things that give them their identity and staying power -- including worship. Worship is exploited to serve ulterior ends, like attracting the disaffected back to the pews (itself fraught with ulterior motives, like, "And then they can help pay the bills"!)
In the much maligned Books of Chronicles, maybe there's a bit of a template for how to deal with a hostile and indifferent culture. Sing! Worship! Be the church!
Showing posts with label Worship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Worship. Show all posts
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Back to the Neighborhood.
I had coffee this morning with a young church planter in Hamilton named Pernell Goodyear. He leads "The Freeway," a downtown community of the Salvation Army. The Freeway I think represents the future of the church. It is highly non-traditional, going against the grain of a denomination (SA) that sounds every bit as tradition bound as the United Church of Canada.
Their home is a former bank building at the corner of King and Wellington in downtown Hamilton. They house a fair trade coffee shop, which Pernell told me generates income to pay for the operation of the building. On Sundays at 6 p.m. there is a worshiping community that gathers.
The difference between The Freeway and most other churches is that it is deliberately and self-consciously a neighborhood church. It is part of a missional movement to reintegrate churches into neighborhoods, and to build churches around groups of people who engage in Christian practices with one another. Pernell says they have absolutely no interest in becoming a traditional congregation based on church growth principles. Their focus is on the formation of Christian community among people who live in the same area.
For that reason, he says they have actually discouraged what you see happening more and more, which is people driving long distances to find a church that "meets their needs."
He described their worship as "sacramental" (I have to ask him for more details about what he means by that) but I think they are expressing the contemporary suspicion of basing the church on marketing techniques or on rationalistic methods of persuasion. Rather, they seek to embody the church through their common life.
He also told me that they consider their building actually be the community's building. The church pays the bills, but the facility is available to the community.
I want to start exploring ways in which already existing churches (like mine) can reestablish a more deeply rooted community connection.
Their home is a former bank building at the corner of King and Wellington in downtown Hamilton. They house a fair trade coffee shop, which Pernell told me generates income to pay for the operation of the building. On Sundays at 6 p.m. there is a worshiping community that gathers.
The difference between The Freeway and most other churches is that it is deliberately and self-consciously a neighborhood church. It is part of a missional movement to reintegrate churches into neighborhoods, and to build churches around groups of people who engage in Christian practices with one another. Pernell says they have absolutely no interest in becoming a traditional congregation based on church growth principles. Their focus is on the formation of Christian community among people who live in the same area.
For that reason, he says they have actually discouraged what you see happening more and more, which is people driving long distances to find a church that "meets their needs."
He described their worship as "sacramental" (I have to ask him for more details about what he means by that) but I think they are expressing the contemporary suspicion of basing the church on marketing techniques or on rationalistic methods of persuasion. Rather, they seek to embody the church through their common life.
He also told me that they consider their building actually be the community's building. The church pays the bills, but the facility is available to the community.
I want to start exploring ways in which already existing churches (like mine) can reestablish a more deeply rooted community connection.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Is "Monthly" the new "Weekly"?
Our Worship planning team decided we would track the number of individuals who attended church over the course of a month. How did we do this? Easy. We passed a clipboard during the announcements and requested people simply to write their names and those of any family members who were actually physically present on that Sunday. We were motivated by a pretty well-informed hunch that part of the decline in Sunday attendance is that people are just coming to church less often than they used to.
In May, 387 people came to church at least once. In October, 399 people came to church, but this time, our hard-working secretary Rosemary broke these numbers down according to frequency. Here's what we found.
13.7% of that 399 people came to church all four Sundays.
20.6% came three Sundays.
25.2% came two Sundays.
And 41% came one Sunday.
In other words, of the basically 400 people who attended a service during October, two-thirds came once or twice.
I don't know about you, but I think a church with 400 people coming through the doors in a month is a pretty healthy church. Our challenge is to find ways to a) increase that 400 to, say, 500; and, more importantly, b) to change the once-a-monthers to more regular attenders.
And I know, I know, numbers aren't everything. But they aren't nothing either. One element of maintaining congregational health is to nurture regular worship attendance. We're working on how to do that. Comments and suggestions gratefully received.
In May, 387 people came to church at least once. In October, 399 people came to church, but this time, our hard-working secretary Rosemary broke these numbers down according to frequency. Here's what we found.
13.7% of that 399 people came to church all four Sundays.
20.6% came three Sundays.
25.2% came two Sundays.
And 41% came one Sunday.
In other words, of the basically 400 people who attended a service during October, two-thirds came once or twice.
I don't know about you, but I think a church with 400 people coming through the doors in a month is a pretty healthy church. Our challenge is to find ways to a) increase that 400 to, say, 500; and, more importantly, b) to change the once-a-monthers to more regular attenders.
And I know, I know, numbers aren't everything. But they aren't nothing either. One element of maintaining congregational health is to nurture regular worship attendance. We're working on how to do that. Comments and suggestions gratefully received.
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