The story of the Good Samaritan has two scenes. Scene One takes place on the dangerous Jericho Pike. Most artists depicting the Good Samaritan parable focus on this scene. The Samaritan is kneeling over the victim or hoisting him onto a beast of burden. You can usually find the priest and the Levite in the distance with their backs turned toward the action.
Here are a few such renditions.
The first is by Van Gogh painted in 1890. The priest is in the distance, the Levite a bit closer. The Samaritan is actively helping the victim. Van Gogh is copying the work of Delacroix from 41 years earlier. Delacroix painted this topic more than once.
Here are two works by Delacroix showing two moments in the scene. He painted the one Van Gogh was copying first (1850). The other was painted in 1852.
Below are some more modern depictions of the same scene.
The colorful work by Paula Modersohn-Becker was painted in 1907—not long after Van Gogh’s.
Here is a surprisingly youthful depiction by 82-year-old English artist Dinah Roe Kendall. Looks very British! The priest and the Levite have their umbrellas to protect them from coming unpleasantness. Notice how different the Samaritan is from the other English actors in this scene.
At last we turn to Scene Two in the Good Samaritan. This scene takes place at the innkeeper’s door. Here is Rembrandt’s work from 1630 and a second, The Moon and the Good Samaritan, by contemporary artist Daniel Bonnell.
The final rendition is by Texas painter, James B. Janknegt. It is entitled Portrait of You as the Good Samaritan. Do you see yourself anywhere? (If not, why not?)
The reason the Church is failing is because large churches are failing.
In today’s Alban Weekly post Steve Willis points out that even in the 1960s and early 1970s, when the Protestant Church was at its statistical peak in America, one denomination’s statistics showed 44% of all congregations had fewer than 100 members and 73% had fewer than 250 members.
Small churches have always been the backbone of the greater church.
During the halcyon days of the American Church, the vision was that small will become big. This is America! There are only three sizes of eggs—large, extra large and jumbo. We worship at the altar of big. Big churches must be better churches.
Why are they still outnumbered by small churches?
In postwar America, Christian pastures looked to be forever verdant. Denominations which operated for decades with a president (now upgraded to bishop) and an assistant and secretary, began to grow staffs of eight, nine or fifteen. The support of booming suburban churches made this hierarchical growth possible.
In many cases, these churches were booming because of white flight from the cities. They were already benefiting from the assets of the small churches. Today they are returning for what they left behind.
Smaller churches were never large supporters of hierarchy. They could support a small denominational office, but never at the modern levels. Truth be told, they received very little attention or benefit from hierarchy, so it is easy for them to question benevolence dollars sent in that direction.
But now the big churches of the suburbs are struggling with dramatic drops in attendance and giving. Some have lost a third of their members. Some half. It will be a while before they can’t pay their own bills. Half of 1500 still leaves 750 supporting members—triple the size of an average church. Nevertheless, the dreams of unending growth and prestige are fading. In order to continue the same level of support for hierarchy, they have to sacrifice their own mission.
That noise you hear is the sound of the church imploding.
It is hard to let go of the flagship hierarchies we’ve created, even when no one really knows what they do! They are part of our brand! After all, we gave them power, and they WILL use it to survive!
How do we keep funding the system we thought would grow and grow back in the post-war boom?
We target the small churches—the churches that were always small, never planned to be very big, had carefully paid their own way, are probably debt-free, but now struggle to meet the expectations of hierarchy. They compete with larger churches for leadership talent, which now expects minimum salary packages that are similar in every church regardless of size.
In historic Lutheran polity (still practiced in places) a church that chooses to close can still determine what to do with their assets. But some synods—the ones with unwieldy hierarchies—have actively made sure that it never comes to that. They look for any opportunity to impose their administration (which under the founding documents is also supposed to be voluntary). They use all kinds of terminology that hoodwinks lay people.
You’ve been designated a “mission development” church. You think you are getting special help. “Mission development” status can give your regional office control of your assets. The lay people don’t see it coming.
You have an interim pastor. Those interim pastors report directly to the bishop.
The last resort: something that doesn’t appear in their governing documents except by incremental tweaks of their constitutions which are now in conflict with the founding corporate documents: involuntary synodical administration. This has become a euphemism for theft. Has ISA (as they cutely call it) EVER been about administration?
All of these methods are ways of diminishing the influence of pesky lay people. They are a means to control—first of the people, then of the people’s assets.
These methods are coming into play more frequently today. The big suburban churches can’t afford the hierarchy they have come to rely upon.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America got by for almost all of its 25-year history by passing hefty deficit budgets—filling the gap with the assets of closed churches. It has been only the last couple of years that they were able to boast of a balanced budget. Even so, their projected incomes have been off by six figures. Only the spin has changed. They can boast of the balanced budget and soft-sell the shortage in funds.
They won’t be so beneficent when they analyze the budgets of the small churches whose assets they covet.
Small neighborhood churches are not necessarily dying. Our communal vision is clouded by greed. That faulty vision is keeping the hierarchies from doing their job in supporting the small churches.
From Willis’s article:
We see our situation through the same spectacles that the dominant, secular American culture views the world. The problem is not that we are getting smaller and more peripheral. The problem is a lethargic faith imagination and a graceless covenant love….
The small-church lament is not about being left behind. It was always behind, always out of step, and always at the margin. The small-church lament is that things are not as they should be. And that lament has a long, important tradition in the life of covenant people. Angry protestations about declining membership rolls and budgets do not offer a prophetic word to the church. But paying closer attention to people and places and speaking out about who people are and what they are created for carry the potential for genuine transformation.
Today’s small church lacks professional leaders who can embrace their potential. The failing suburban model needs the assets of the cities and rural areas, the places from which they drew their members 40 years ago.
In coveting small church assets, church leaders are doing grave disservice to the churches they serve. Assets which are valued only to fill irresponsible hierarchical shortfalls are assets squandered. Properties in well-populated neighborhoods are sold to replicate a dying model in a new location for a few decades. In doing so, they have squandered the assets of the communities who provided them—at considerable lay sacrifice. In their struggle to control the assets of member churches, they violate the lay leadership — who are the source of all hierarchical wealth.
Today’s Gospel is one of the best-known stories from the New Testament. It bears repeating because its message is so easily forgotten.
It is the story of The Good Samaritan or The Care and Treatment of Aliens in Our Midst.
We relive this story in our own lives daily. Sometimes we play the Samaritan. Often, we play the priest and the Levite.
Your adults are likely to be well aware of aliens. Aliens are often in the news today. Many people in America want to keep them out, forgetting our shared heritage.
Aliens challenge our economy.
Aliens bring with them ideologies and values we may not understand.
It is not a greet leap from these fears to a common bottom line on the topic of aliens.
Aliens are a threat. Where there is one there is more—who knows how many?
What might be “given” to aliens is rightfully “ours.”
The story of the Good Samaritan is a common plotline in literature.
Use the movie ET as a focus of your discussion today. The story of ET is the story of an extraterrestrial—an alien life form. Use a photo of ET or perhaps you can find a vintage ET toy. Or you can just retell the story of Elliot and ET. Let your congregation remind you of ET’s greatest wish (prayer). ET phone home.
ET was an alien in trouble, caught without help in a land that belonged to someone else. He just wanted to go home.
The law wanted him.
Science wanted him.
He was an object to them. The word “alien” stripped him of his, well, we can’t really say “humanity.” But isn’t that what we are tempted to do to modern aliens—strip them of humanity? Sending them home is OK with us because sending them home is within our power.
In the story of ET, sending the alien home is not within human power and that frightens those “in charge” of order and safety. People like to think someone is in control. People in control like to think they have power! It is frightening when we realize we really don’t have as much power or control as we think we have. That’s what the priest and the Levite realized when they “passed on the other side.”
ET is befriended by a young boy who actually becomes one with the creature. He shelters him, feeds him, teaches him and cares for him to the point of sacrificing his life. Sound familiar?
Comparing the story of ET to the Good Samaritan will give you many points to discuss with your adult learners.
Who are the aliens in our community? The victims? The misfits?
Who are the authorities who pass them by?
Who are the Samaritans?
But remember the often forgotten last verses of this story. The Good Samaritan continues to care for the victim long after he drops him at someone else’s door. Being a Good Samaritan is an ongoing responsibility.
Remind your adult learners of the question that prompted Jesus to tell this story.
Who is my neighbor?
Tomorrow’s post will feature The Good Samaritan in Art.
Today’s Gospel was the Luke version of the sending of the disciples or apostles into the world in pairs of two (Luke 10.)
The passage is the source of our mission’s name and so we take it seriously.
In the Luke version, there are 70 or 72. A discrepancy in early manuscripts leaves us wondering today. The Mark (Mark 6) version has no numbers. It has more of a sense of an ongoing mission. Jesus “began to send them out two by two.”
A little research reveals that there has been some attempt to name the original 70 or 72. (Note: They aren’t all male!). Heading the list is James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus, and eventually the bishop of Jerusalem. He is also the author of the book of James.
The book of James is noted for admonishing Christians to get off their duffs and do something. It seems his early experience as one of the original missionaries left a lasting impression.
The Book of James almost missed making it into the approved Bible. The idea that Christians need to roll up their sleeves and do more than pray rubs some theologians the wrong way.
Yet it makes perfect sense. The Scriptures are clear that Jesus expects his followers to represent him in the world in more than theory.
Why do we still fight the impulse to respond to God’s love, freely given, with selfless action?
There is the chance that the work will be difficult. Jesus promises this.
There is a chance the work will go unappreciated. Today’s Gospel lesson prepares us for that.
There is a chance our work will be unpopular. Christians like being liked.
There is a chance that we will fail—at least at first. Our definition of success is narrow indeed if all we measure is words and music.
Without the book of James and Christ’s asking us to do this missionary work, the Church would mean very little. Maybe there’s something to be learned in that. When Christians go to work, there is something to talk about—a reason to share and widen our circles. Without work, it’s all talk. Without work, the talk gets stale fast.
I was recently with friends my age. We were all children in the 50s and 60s. We began remembering summer Bible schools. We came from different denominational traditions, but we had one thing in common. Vacation Bible School was a pivotal start in our faith journeys. It wasn’t our youngest years that we remembered—the years when we pasted cotton puffs on construction paper to make sheep. It was our older years, when we put together skits and did service projects and just had a great time.
One friend commented that her family moved one summer and the Bible School she attended eased the disruption in her life. She had friends when she started school the next fall.
Bible School used to be two weeks long—long enough to build community, change faith habits and make an impact on a congregation.
The concept of VBS began to fade when mothers began working.
Soon the energy waned. A two-week school, staffed by volunteers, was too much like work.
With parents out of the house, older children had their summers scheduled. No longer able to volunteer, parents looked to enrich their children’s life with paid camps which would advance their child’s academic progress — sports camps and academic enrichment camps. Cost, when it’s not the church, is no object. These paid camps tend to challenge the youth and make it worth the parental sacrifice.
Instead of emulating the trend, beefing up their summer programs, and adjusting the economic model, churches slowly began to cut back or eliminate VBS.
Two weeks became five days, with instructional time limited to less than two hours. The impact of the school became negligible. Nothing replaced it.
Volunteers to work with older children are the hardest to recruit, so only the youngest children are now served.
The Church couldn’t do things they way they used to. We pretty much stopped doing anything but going through the motions. They made it easy for kids to stop coming at just the age when they need incentive to stay engaged.
Working together to solve problems has never been a strong point of the Church. The most common attempt was to go together to hold a community VBS and that benefited the host congregation more than the others. That sort of thinking soon died.
The value of VBS to a congregation is in the immersion, in building new faith awareness and engaging families. They are of real value when they are part of other programming.
When VBS is a short, stand-alone event aimed at only the youngest children, who are perhaps too young to even carry the memory into their adult lives, they are of little value.
There is barely enough time and energy to hold classes. Engaging in follow-up, the real value of a VBS, is next to impossible.
The failure of VBS is a failure of the Church to adapt. We can’t do VBS the old way, so we won’t do it all or just create a minimal experience to say we are still doing it.
The core problems of VBS were never addressed.
Problem 1: Lack of volunteers
If VBS is your best and most promising outreach to the community, it might be worth paying people and making sure they are trained to do a great job. In the church we tend to keep spending money on the same things (that aren’t working).
Problem 2: Busy kids
Instead of developing a more challenging summer program which would keep children challenged and engaged, we made it easy for them to drift away. Reversing this will be tough. Families find time for things that are worth their while.
Problem 3: Cost
Parents pay for all those other camps that they are sure will benefit their children. They just might be willing to pay for a summer faith program that offers the same opportunities for growth.
We believe that a faith-based summer program can still be a major asset to a congregation. It must be more professional in approach. Activities must be challenging. Families must be engaged and VBS must be part of larger church experience.
VBS has been neglected for several decades—decades of decline all around. It still has possibilities but reviving it will require some funding, at least initially. This will require church entities to work together—always a challenge, but so very needed.
VBS-aid
What if instead of congregations joining together to host a school, they joined together to train a team of leaders which would travel from congregation to congregation?
We put together a concept three summers ago which attracted interest from congregations. None of them wanted to pay even a modest sum to attempt it. Instead, they all did nothing that summer (and every summer since).
The hierarchy partners we approached would very much benefit from a cooperative program with congregations. It would build good will, which will eventually benefit them in their mission. They had other priorities, we were told. At the same time, they cried about few people entering vocations. They just couldn’t see that the program we were trying to develop would introduce church careers to youth. As it is, youth are absent from church life during the years they ponder their future.
We think the program is still worth trying. An experimental year could be funded for $100,000 and benefit eight to sixteen congregations that couldn’t run a program like this on their own.
The concept calls for teams of trained teachers (college students) to provide the leadership to a congregation. Four to eight congregations in the same 20-mile radius would share the expenses but have the benefits of the school being in their church. The traveling VBS-team will spend two weeks in each congregation.
Pooling the resources of several churches will make it affordable for all.
2×2 would still like to pioneer this concept. If your small church is worried about your future and want to take a new approach to revival, try to find a few other congregations in your general geographic area to see if VBS-aid might restore a summer ministry to your congregations and contact us.
It’s too late for this year. But if enough congregations commit by Christmas 2013, we’d love to put a first team together to test the concept. (The program is interdenominational.)
Our nation was blessed with a new beginning at a time in history when a new beginning was very much needed.
Life was bleak for the common people. Things were so bad that it was worth considerable risk to create change. Freedom sounded like a good idea.
A good many people from every station in life took these risks to make sure that this new idea — the United States — guaranteed every citizen a voice, a vote and a good stab at happiness and upward mobility.
For the first time in history, the common person could do more than dream of being something more than his or her birth station allowed.
Religious freedom was a key goal for many of the immigrants who fled to America, including both sides of my family tree.
This was all new 237 years ago. Many sacrificed and died that this great experiment might continue to prosper as older and richer nations faltered and failed.
As we look over our experiences of the last five years, we have to wonder. We seem to have become a nation that celebrates our freedoms and the power and advantages they give us, but we so often fail to use them. Our social focus seems to be on protecting ourselves and our accumulated wealth and comfort. If speaking out for the downtrodden or the abused might cost us —well, let some other fool bear that burden. And if no one does — well, it’s not that big a loss.
Religious freedom is foundational to American life. Sadly, churches use their protected status to abuse their most vulnerable members. Whether it’s small congregations or helpless children — the modern church puts its hierarchical interests above the people they serve. And nothing will stop them from protecting their right to bully.
The courts, too, charged to examine corporate issues fairly and impartially are tempted to turn a blind eye to abuses of the freedoms in the church. Avoiding interference in doctrinal issues gives a license to church leaders to create doctrinal issues where none exist so that they can have their way without regard to the law on corporate issues. A few more decades may reveal just how dangerous this lawless monster can become. We are starting to get a glimpse of it as the scandals in the Roman Catholic church continue to unravel. Protestants have their challenges, too.
Until the courts realize that every aspect of church life does not involve doctrine — that a lot of it is contractual with corporate promises that should be binding — there is a remedy. The people — the foundation of both our country and the Church — can exercise the rights that so many people continue to sacrifice to protect. They can speak up, they can advocate, they can be adversaries for others.
But they probably won’t. It might cost them their status, some money, some comfort and ease. Freedom to be selfish.
Recently, I was staffing a booth at a regional denominational convention where I had the chance to speak to a pastor who had been put in charge of revitalizing what was considered a declining church in a medium-sized town in Pennsylvania.
This town, like many others across the country, was facing the challenges associated with contemporary American life: changing ethnicity, the rise of secularism, and–let’s be frank—the effects of sin and evil.
This pastor, who also worked in construction and sported a military-style buzz cut, was charged by the denominational leadership to “turn around” this small city church.
“Go in there and act like the Marine. You already look the part,” he was told.
Like a good soldier he followed orders. During the beginning days of his tenure at the church, senior lay leadership made it clear that they were not happy with the changes he was proposing. He pushed back. Hard. And made it clear that changes would be made and that if they didn’t like it, they would be free to leave.
“They are the old line power-hungry elite who are standing in the way of church growth,” he said forcefully. “They’ll find another declining church to join where they can play their power games.”
Expendable Members. What A Way to Grow A Church!
The strategy, which has been proposed by others, was to hound the offending laity until they ended up saying their prayers alone in their living room on Sunday morning.
Most lay people who stay in “declining” congregations are those who teach Sunday School, who sing in the choir, and who serve at the church suppers when there are fewer and fewer people to take on those tasks. They may have held their congregations together through decades of neighborhood unrest and possibly through several poor ineffective pastoral solutions presented by their regional body.
Most likely they were married there and their children were baptized there. Probably their parents were, too. They were the ones who stayed and put up with the theological experimentation—which at times bordered on heresy—the same denominational leadership who was now trying to force them out.
They are the faithful backbone of the church—the ones you can count on to show up with their sleeves rolled.
I’m no doctor, but I think that it’s considered malpractice to treat a limping patient with a sprained ankle by fracturing his back.
Servanthood in the Church
Christ doesn’t treat His Church that way. In Ephesians, Paul compares the Church to a bride and says that Jesus “gave himself up for her” and “nourishes and cherishes” her.
Jesus called himself the Good Shepherd and said that he would leave the 99 and go after the one lost sheep. He also said that He would never leave or forsake those 99. Any earthly hireling shepherd that would purposely scatter the herd in his charge would be a dangerous fool and should be fired by his employer.
Perhaps today’s church leadership should emulate the Marines, whose motto is semper fidelis for whom honor is sacred. Perhaps we should live by the marine’s primary rule of engagement: never leave one your own behind.
It would be biblical. Jesus told his flock that he would never leave them or forsake them.
Jesus had some very harsh words for his hired hands: “Anyone who causes even the least of my own to go astray, it is better that he wears a millstone around his neck and is thrown into the sea.”
I was paging through the New Testament the other day looking for the chapter and verse where Jesus said that it was okay for people to throw others out of his church, abandon and demonize the most faithful, lock doors, claim property and declare their actions to be righteous and praiseworthy—while anyone who might think differently can go eat cake.
NOTE from 2×2: Thanks for your heartfelt contribution, Joanna.
A career pastor who made a mission of reviving congregations, spending five to seven years in each, once told me the first thing a transformational pastor must do is “nothing for one year.” Getting to know the parish and forming relationships with lay leaders takes that long, he advised. After that, when you’ve proved that you love the congregation and have their interests at heart (as opposed to your own or that of the regional body) begin to introduce ideas, gently — not like a Marine. Until solid relationships are formed, lay leaders are well within their rights to be resistant and suspicious. All clergy would have to do is practice the Golden Rule. How would you like it if someone treated you like your home would be better without you in it? Lay caution is natural and usually based in love for the church—not a lust for power. Their caution is prudent.
Lay people with an insatiable lust for power don’t hang around in small churches.
Clergy get away with their self-serving attitudes because they count on lay leaders to have no voice. 2×2 is trying to change that.
We’d love to check back on that Marine Pastor in a year or so to see if his approach worked or if he found himself the shepherd of a closed church.
Thanks, again, for your view coming from a different denomination. Judy
Note: For the first time we are including a musical offering to enhance the object lesson. It’s at the end.
It is summer and the seaside will attract many of us for some rest and relaxation.
Waves are our object for today. If you use a projector in worship, use photos of waves. Or stir up your own waves in a large glass bowl.
There is something refreshing about staring at the motion of water and particularly the sea. It doesn’t matter if the waves reach gently for dry land or crash with untamable power onto the rocks and shoreline. We can’t take our eyes off the beauty, the power, and the fact that we have no control over it. The water will have its way!
Today’s gospel, Luke 10:1-11, 16-20, is about a great sending. Jesus sends 7o apostles ahead of him in pairs or 2×2 (for which our ministry is named).
Jesus gives a list of Spartan instructions, which are designed to make sure the mission is not forgotten. Take nothing for yourself. Try to reach everyone, but don’t waste time if ears and minds are closed.
The thought that God is relying on us is humbling.
There is a warning that things might not always go smoothly. The message they will be preaching will at times be harsh. People WILL have a hard time hearing it.
Jesus includes some fire and brimstone. (Some of this is in the excluded verses. Go ahead and read them.)
The 70 have a pretty good first maiden voyage. They return to Jesus impressed with the power that Jesus gave them.
Who knows how many times these first apostles reached out to new people? How many shores did they reach? How many times did they return to the water of their baptism for revival?
That’s what your adult learners can think about as they watch the waves this summer, returning again and again to the sea, reaching ever higher toward land as the tide rises.
The job we, as modern apostles, are asked to do remains challenging. We still face rejection.
Sometimes the path will be pleasant and rewarding, but there is no promise that the sea will always be gentle. Yet, it is with the power of the Word that we reach out. We are to take no pride in this power. We are fortunate to have the relationship with the Lord and the promise of heaven.
This is a complex analogy for adult learners but today’s lesson can include the children of the congregation by having all join together with one or both of the following songs which relate to today’s gospel. One is a 2×2 original. We’ve paired it with an American spiritual.
It is designed to be fun. Having fun together as a congregation is a good educational tool. You can exclude the parts in parentheses and some of the rhythms if you want your worship to be more formal.
To help you learn the songs there’s a homemade audio to give you the basic tune. This is our first venture in offering music. We’ll get better at it. Promise.
Two by two x
Two by two x
Jesus sent apostles out two by two
And they preached. xx
And they taught. xx
They made the demons take a walk. (Get lost!)
Jesus sent apostles out
Two x by x two. xx
Two by two x
Two by two x
Jesus still is sending us two by two.
We will preach. xx
We will teach. xx
Every nation we must reach. (Each one!)
Jesus sent apostles out (Knock on pew) xx xxx
Jesus sent apostles out (Knock on pew) xx xxx
Jesus sent apostles out
Two x by x two. xx
and / or
You can move directly into a new rhythm and keep it going, rapping on a guitar soundboard or on a pew. Clapping can work, too.
Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. (repeat throughout the next song)
Somebody’s knocking at your door.
Somebody’s knocking at your door.
Oh, sinner. Why don’t you answer?
Somebody’s knocking at your door.
Knocks like Jesus.
Somebody’s knocking at your door.
Can’t you hear him?
Somebody’s knocking at your door.
Oh, sinner, why don’t you answer?
Somebody’s knocking at your door.
Somebody’s knocking at your door.
Somebody’s knocking at your door.
Oh, sinner. Why don’t you answer?
Somebody’s knocking at your door.
Close with the traditional knock:
Knock. Knock. Knock, knock, knock.
Shout: Who’s there?
You can use this same closing knock on 2×2 Song if you use only one of the songs.
It’s only about six years since the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America published its first new worship book (liturgies and hymns) in about 25 years. The official preceding hymnal was used for only about 25 years. The hymnal before that was used a bit longer and the hymnal before that even longer. The life of a hymnal is getting shorter and shorter. It may be extinct.
Today there is no need for a hymnal. But there is a need to fund the offices that create worship resources. Publishing and promoting a new hymnal may sound like a way to keep money flowing.
In our 65 church visits, almost no churches use the hymnal for the liturgy and rarely reference them for hymns. The expensive hymn books gather dust in the hymn racks.
Many churches have not bothered to invest thousands of dollars to restock their hymn racks with the latest official worship publication. Those that have would probably have spent their money more wisely elsewhere. It doesn’t look like there is much future for physical hymnals.
Here is why hymnals are an outdated idea.
The liturgies they include are meant to unite congregations in tradition. When a member visits another congregation, he or she will feel at home. But then they have included a fairly large number of liturgy choices. Most congregations use only one or two. So the unity objective works only if every church chooses the same one or two.
People can publish their own liturgies now. They are mixing and matching from various traditions and popular songs from Christian radio — and church camp! Try as the church might, those liturgies are going to be mutilated from their intended use. Nothing wrong with that, by the way.
Hymnals are heavy. This newest one is like a barbell. Maybe I’m getting older. Maybe most church people are getting older.
People like to sing what they like to sing. If their favorites aren’t in the hymnal (and many aren’t) they are going to reprint them from another source, leaving the hymnal in the rack. The notion that the denomination has approved the theology and tweaked the wording to suit their spin, making sure God hears the right words of praise, sung to the most pleasing (if obscure) tune, well, it just won’t sell anymore.
People today have ready and relatively free access to words and chords. The internet is one big fake book.
If a stated goal is diversity, we have to look outside one hymnal to reach people. The world is so much bigger than any one hymnal can ever be…unless…
The wisest direction for those entrusted with liturgical integrity is to take their work and message online. That’s where many people turn when putting together a worship service these days. A new economic model will be needed, but that has to happen anyway. The next hymnal ten or fifteen years down the road is not likely to sell.
There is a big opportunity to pioneer such a web service. The Church can tackle it or wait for someone else to corner this audience.
If they choose to tackle it, they will reach a much broader audience than their own denomination. Denominational thinking keeps us from realizing this!
They can publish and promote new music in real time—not every 20 years.
Join Bishop Ruby Kinisa as she visits small churches "under cover" to learn what people would never share if they knew they were talking to their bishop.
Undercover Bishop will always be available in PDF form on 2x2virtualchurch.com for FREE.
Print or Kindle copies are available on Amazon.com.
For bulk copies, please contact 2x2: creation@dca.net.
Contact Info
You can reach
Judy Gotwald,
the moderator of 2x2,
at
creation@dca.net
or 215 605 8774
Redeemer’s Prayer
We were all once strangers, the weakest, the outcasts, until someone came to our defense, included us, empowered us, reconciled us (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 2).
2×2 Sections
Where in the World is 2×2?
On Isaiah 30:15b
Be calm. Wait. Wait. Commit your cause to God. He will make it succeed. Look for Him a little at a time. Wait. Wait. But since this waiting seems long to the flesh and appears like death, the flesh always wavers. But keep faith. Patience will overcome wickedness.
—Martin Luther
Below are some more modern depictions of the same scene.
