Are We Ashamed of Our Faith?
Today’s Alban Institute forum is back to the same old, never-changing challenge for churches — facing change.
Today’s writer points to “shame” as an element that keeps congregants from being effective evangelists. We greet newcomers with suspicion. That’s no way to build a church!
The writer cites the many scandals the church has faced in recent years and out-dated worship practices as causes, but she correctly suggests that there is more to it than that.
The post drew a number of responses. One writer asked the question 2×2 has addressed a number of times. Do the clergy and hierarchy take any responsibility for the decline in today’s Church?
The answer we see to this question is NO. The problem, as defined by most clergy, is stick-in-the-mud lay people, who attend church for selfish reasons and just don’t do the things needed to guarantee the prosperity of the congregation, clergy and hierarchy. (No one is ever very clear about what those things might be. It usually means “they aren’t taking orders.”)
That’s a pretty big bill for anyone to pay. As numbers decline, the per capita obligations grow and grow. Clergy and hierarchies still have salary demands and budgets to meet and they don’t care if the salary is paid by 40 people or 400 people or if churches must close to meet their deficits. It’s hard to attract new worshipers when an honest assessment of their potential membership involves meeting budgets over which they will have little control—and the reality that in the end, all their work may be for naught if the regional body decides they need your property more than you do.
Another commenter pointed to another reality. Critics of church-goers often have little knowledge of church traditions. Their visits are as those of aliens. The value of singing old hymns and adjusting to church language clashes with modern sensibilities, where things have to be new and stretch our experiences.
Sometimes the lack of familiarity of a younger generation becoming involved in church is comical. A college-trained musician, who took a job as church organist, once commented that in every hymnal he encountered the phrase “As pants the hart for cooling streams” the word “heart” was spelled wrong.
At other times, the attempt to meet new church-goers where they are leads to wrong teaching. A new translation of the Bible replaces the word Hosanna with Hooray. Church-goers know that Hosanna is a prayer.
The lack of young people in church is only going to widen this cultural gap. If they are ever to become involved in church, they will have to learn the ABCs of their faith.
Shame is going to get us nowhere. Wise church leaders will work at building the self-confidence of members so they can welcome visitors with true hospitality. Knowledge of faith builds self-confidence. We have to know what we believe!
That’s a challenge for every church and worrying about change isn’t going to address it!