Today’s Honest Conversation has to do with the topic of trends within the church. At first glance this idea of trends may seem trivial, but it can be a symptom of a real problem or issue. This is true with our health and so many things in nature. We have all had the experience of going over to someone else’s house and realizing that not everyone lives the same way you do. Different people embrace all different kinds of foods, cultures, and trends. It can lead to an ah-ha moment that explains why you admire and respect your friends. Church leaders often embrace the current trends that most closely resemble the character and integrity of the organization they lead. They make a choice to either implement trends that can activate people to discipleship and growth in their relationship with God, or they invest in trends that facilitate abuse of power in the church. Sadly, in my experience the latter is the more prevalent approach.
“All who are in need of sanctification turn to the Spirit; all those who seek him live by virtue, for his breath refreshes them and comes to their aid in the pursuit of their natural and proper end. Capable of perfecting others, the Spirit himself lacks nothing. He is not being who needs to restore his strength, but himself lacks nothing…The source of sanctification, a light perceptible to the mind, he supplies through himself illumination to every force of reason searching for truth.” -Basil of Caesarea, 375 A.D.
This quote is an example of how, from the very early years of Christianity, healthy church leaders pointed out how important it was for the believer to live in the fullness of God’s understanding. These leaders understood how to get out of the way, so that God could be the focus of a person’s faith. This sanctification process in a believers’ life means that God is continually regenerating us and he never gets tired. Yes, we are made right by God because of the work of the cross (justification), but our mind and the desires of our old nature still live within us. There will be a day of redemption but until then we must allow the work of His Spirit to work in us. Mature and healthy leaders understand that although God created humanity in His own image, the fulfillment of His likeness is for us as His creation, to figure out. The word gospel literally means “good news.” This good news is the message of the victory of the cross and the power of the resurrection. The Gospel is not the gospel just because the pastor says it is. The Gospel is the power of God that saves. Many churches have come to use the gospel as the first baby step for someone to become loyal to a church, its culture, and its leaders.
There have been trends that I have personally experienced in my tenure in ministry that were so frustrating to me because of the manipulation and the misalignment to the true intent of the Great Commission. These are church trends that tie individuals’ loyalty to the culture of their own specific church so much that one’s faith can actually become indistinguishable from that culture. A funny expression that is often used in churches is, “This is just how we do chicken.” The meaning of this phrase is that while all churches should fundamentally be serving the same Gospel message, each church will have its own way of preparing it that will be an expression of that individual church’s culture. I question that whole premise. In my experience, the current trend is to intertwine the culture of a church with the truth of the gospel in such a way that if someone were to question something that a church was doing it would be as though they were questioning the gospel itself. To the ears of immature and unhealthy church leaders, asking questions about how things are done in their church sounds like an outright expression of disloyalty, akin to someone questioning the foundation of their faith. I saw something recently that really surprised me, maybe because I’ve been so removed from the day-to-day workings of a church for more than a year. It read, “Pray for your pastor, Encourage your pastor, Be loyal to your church, Trust your pastor, trusts God.” Do you see what’s sandwiched in the middle of those statements? Loyalty. Why are people being asked to be loyal to their church? This kind of communication only serves to perpetuate a culture where people are afraid to speak up about troubling things going on in their church. Instead of pressing in and engaging, they are expected to be “loyal.”
Below are my thoughts on some church trends I’ve seen, this is not an exhaustive list nor is it the same for all churches. This is my personal experience, and I am willing to talk about it because it is important to understand what questions we can ask our church leaders and more importantly ask ourselves. Are we willing to look closely, honestly, and actively at some of these trends and be willing to step back and abandon misplaced loyalties? I understand this takes courage; it takes courage to even begin.
No more pastoral care/counseling: I remember several times I was asked to terminate our pastoral care/counseling pastors because at the end of the day their reach was limited. Why pay a pastor to council people if they can only reach 30 to 40 people a month? The reasoning was that if we were a church of thousands, why should we provide counseling that would only benefit a few people each month? The lead pastor balked at how much it cost to pay these pastors to take time with people. Building campaigns, charismatic speakers, and anything that had an immediate ROI is where you spend your money. Counseling was not regarded as important enough, so these pastors were expected to multitask by overseeing all the ushering, parking, and hospitality. If you go to a church where pastors are not available to talk to or counsel because they are too busy…this might be a symptom of a bigger problem. Just look at their Instagram posts to see how busy they really are.
Growth Tracks/Next Step Programs: This trend is being implemented in so many churches and I want to acknowledge that its creators built it with good intentions, but many churches are using it for different purposes. You must remember that many churches have built such large ecologies that there is more of a focus on getting people to volunteer for church services than there is for the discipleship and fulfilling the Great Commission. You will hear in many churches that to serve is the ultimate thing you can do for the (C)hurch. Growth Tracks is advertised as a way a believer can discover their divine design and is touted as the first step designed for discipleship. What Growth Tracks is really used for is a recruiting and onboarding mechanism to put you to work in a church service or its facilities. This “discipleship program” is a convenient way to fulfill their endless need for volunteers in a culture driven by loyalty and the false pretense that signing up for a volunteer spot will fulfill a person’s divine design. I would say that churches today are focused on getting 90% of their church body to volunteer within the four walls of the church and only the other 10% are being equipped to be discipled outside the church.
Celebrate Recovery: This ministry is the real deal. The transformation that occurs in these ministries is nothing less than a miracle. I have always been inspired by these family’s commitment to the gospel and their passion to worship. I think that in many churches it would be great to use CR’s liturgy in the main service because it more closely resembles what the early church looked like. So, why is Celebrate Recovery on my list? It has nothing to do with CR itself but with the way I have seen lead pastors manipulate it for their own benefit. I have heard numerous conversations where lead pastors refer to CR as a base to get zealous volunteers for their churches and it is sad and alarming. The disregard some of these leaders have for addiction replacement is unreconcilable. Some leaders lure these incredible people with the lime light of the stage to get them to do more work and help them feel fulfilled.
Church Branding: Churches love to copy best practices. I think this has been my biggest rub, how reactive churches are because rather than leading, they love to copy! How true has this been with church names. Several years ago, a growing church decided to remove their crosses and chose an adverb rather than a noun for their church name. All of a sudden, many churches across America began changing their names to adjectives and adverbs. This trend is driven by branding and keeping up with the Joneses. This copycat trend also happens with finances and leads to so many messes. Church branding has made my list because it is indicative of how lead pastors see their churches. It’s not a church… it’s a brand. I have spoken to a well-known worship team, and they stated that they regard themselves as brand and not as worship team. This was not just semantics, it had everything to do with their image and their ability to produce commerce.
Social Justice. One my favorite scriptures is Micah 6:8: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” If your church is not consistent with issues and they are cherry-picking what issues they focus on by what you see on the news…you might need to ask the question: if we believed it to be true last year why is it not valid this year? I remember just recently how churches would proclaim that they were pro-life, yet you must beg churches for them to visit elderly people in assisted living homes. Elderly people are often not considered valuable in churches, but youthfulness is. This question is important, does your church actually value these issues or are they using current events as a manipulation tactic to get more butts in the seats.
Internship Programs. Something that was initially intended to activate the beauty of a young person’s divine design through spiritual, educational, and Christ-centered community has become just another profit stream for some churches. This trend has been the most disheartening, especially left in the hands of narcissistic leaders. How many times have I heard leaders boasting to others about how much money is made through these programs? Too many to count. Many of these internships are considered farm factories for future pastor hires, but only a few interns will be hired as pastors. But even if they aren’t destined for a career in ministry, the other 90% are still valuable, they are used for cheap labor. What makes things even worse is that many of those that are leading these programs do not have a passion for education nor do they have a heart for the students. They lure in young students and parents by offering short-term community experiences and less expensive educational packages that initially make everyone happy. Many of these students do not complete their educational studies and end up having nothing to show for it, except of course their future student-loan payments. Not all is lost, but there are so many interns who have spoken out in Honest Conversations. Many of them tell a familiar story of neglect and have witnessed things that have discouraged them from ever wanting to come back to church. God help us all.
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