I had an interesting dialogue with my father about pastoral ministry recently, and he said something in our conversation that really made me think. After having pastored a thriving church for 25 years, he decided to step down and take on leadership at a seminary full-time. I had asked him if leaving was difficult for him because of all the relationships that he had built and invested into for all of those years. His response was that it was not as hard as one would think because he noticed that as he scanned the faces in the crowd on Sunday mornings in the months before he resigned, he noticed that he no longer recognized most of the faces of the people in the room anymore. Apparently, so many people had come and gone through the years that the entire face of the church had changed.
As a pastor, I have observed for myself this incredible shift of people who change churches almost as often as they change clothes. And, I have been amazed as I have witnessed this ongoing flux of Christians who tend to wander from church to church looking for the newest and greatest show on earth. Now, what has amazed me even more is that churches seem to be willingly feeding this wanderlust by strangely competing with one another for their attention.
Having been in pastoral ministry for almost a decade now, I have crossed paths with a number of pastors and churches that are unapologetic about and consumed with their church growth models and marketing strategies, and they will try just about anything to lure the masses into their sanctuaries and even away from others. On a recent Sunday morning that I was free from responsibilities at my own fellowship, I was able to visit a large church that boasted the most expensive facilities and amenities in the area and was amused to find a large bookstore complete with religiously themed t-shirts, Christian skull caps and Bible action figures. There was also an expansive coffeehouse with a full breakfast buffet…all the necessary things we need for a genuine worship experience, of course. But, what struck me the most during my visit was not the multi-million dollar sound system or the state of the art children’s computer check in system, but one simple revelatory notation in the church bulletin.
As I sat down in the back before the service and read through the bulletin I noticed that the church posted for all to see those who had recently “transferred” membership to the church. Now, maybe it’s just me, but the veritable fact that people are transferring from other churches to yours is probably something we should be actually embarrassed of rather than proud of. People shifting from one congregation to another does not grow the kingdom of God but simply reshapes it. And, it seems to me that this ongoing shape-shifting is probably a shameful indictment of a fickle church culture and not a measure of ministry success. So, I’m wondering if celebrating these tidal shifts is wise or even appropriate.
Now, I know that people do move at times from one church to another for understandable and necessary reasons such as a physical move from one community into another or a fundamental doctrinal or philosophical disagreement with their former church home. But, when people shift their membership simply because of their ever changing tastes, styles and preferences, then what we have created and permitted is a formula for a hollow Church.
The author Calvin Miller in his book Once Upon A Tree put it this way: “Fields of suburban Christians migrate from congregation to congregation, propelled by a wanderlust for the greatest Christian show on earth. This ecclesiastical restlessness thwarts the holy work of God’s saving community. The saving work of our Savior cannot prosper while his community wanders in search of something glitzy to fill its shallow heart. The reverbs and amps and colored spots of contemporary worship can come to focus on a plastic discipleship where shepherds replace their crooks of pastoral care with vaudeville hats and canes.”
What he is saying is that the wanderlust of vagabond Christians who skip from church to church with the attention span of 4 year olds is not only undermining the stability of the local church but is also stifling the progress of spiritual growth. There was a time in the first few centuries of the church that there was only one notable church assembly in each city for people to attend and, and if they had differences that divided them, then they needed to overcome those differences in order to fellowship and worship. They did not have the option of just attending another church down the street or around the corner as they did not have the luxury of simply running away from their diversities. No, they had to find unity in the midst of their diversity.
Today, though, if we get bored or disagree with each other on even the most minute details of doctrinal fidelity, then we simply feel entitled to either find another church that suits us better or just start a church of our own. Through the centuries, we have divided and denominated ourselves ad infinitum to the point where there are too many different assemblies in any given city to even count. Now, that ought to strike us as odd especially since Jesus specifically prayed that the church would “be one” in John 17. Jesus wanted His Church, above all, to be united around the globe and we have instead chosen to be divided over and over and over again.
So, that leads me to conclude that we are merely living out the effects of the divisions that we ourselves have created. We have effectively catered to the consumer Christian by constantly offering them an array of alternatives rather than challenging them to learn the importance of steadfast commitments. What we perhaps don’t realize is that by creating an ever growing menu of churches and ministries, we are actually enhancing the expectations of an already shallow consumer culture.
For me, one of my primary frustrations in church ministry is the ever revolving door that is pushed around on its axis by vagabond Christians who blow in and out of churches because they don’t seem to understand or appreciate the importance of a commitment. And, perhaps they don’t know any better because we just keep enabling it. I’m thinking that their flaky, non-commital modus operandi is fueled first by our unwillingness to expect more of them but also by our reluctance to stop trying to find new ways to entertain them.
