I started the week at a wonderful preaching conference put on by Mercer University and McAfee School of Theology, a gathering of over a hundred moderate and progressive pastors who lead some amazing churches.
I run a non-profit youth and children’s camp, so what am I doing at a pastors’ conference? I wondered that entering the hall for the first session, but was quickly reminded that Passport is an important partner with many of these churches and they are benefiting from their investment with us. They have ministerial staff who spent a summer learning and leading with us, or their students come to Passport and see that our careful attention to theology matches with their own thoughtful preaching.
I came away with three thoughts that I will be chewing on for a while.
1. Preaching is changing, as culture is changing.
Most of our preachers use a narrative style, which leads us along a thoughtful path toward a surprising or transformative conclusion. But consider this: Is it realistic to expect our congregations to keep up with a 30-minute narrative journey, when they live in a bit-sized culture that communicates in 128 characters?
As church is no longer the societal norm for American culture, today’s congregations often don’t know how to live in Christian community. And teaching them will take sharing information, much more than can be shared in a 30-second vine, or one sentence tweet. Passport wrestles with this as we plan camp worship each summer.
So do we abandon the narrative preaching style to keep attention? I don’t think so. But can we change and adapt in helpful ways? You bet. And as our preachers make adjustments, they are and will be trying lots of things to aid the listener – outlines, screens overhead, video clips, and podcasts for members on the go. How can we help? Most of these ideas take work, coordination, and volunteers – so jump in!
2. Mega church pastors have some things to teach us.
The guest lecturer for this event was Dr. Thomas Long, with the Candler School of Theology at Emory. He suggested that mega church pastors are changing the way we preach with sermon titles like, “5 ways to communicate better with your children,” or “The secret to a healthy marriage.” This allows them to teach their congregation how to live in a community of faith, while offering attention grabbing reentry points for the Instagram culture. Mega churches are thriving because they completely shifted their model to match the current culture. They are adept at using media in the church, and social media outside it.
We need to watch and study and learn – with no preconceived judgments to cloud us. Will it all translate to traditional worship at the First Baptist Church? No, but that isn’t to say some of it will, and it just might be transformational.
3. We get to swim in deep water.
I sat with Shaun King, pastor at Johns Creek Baptist Church in Alpharetta, GA, and heard how he sometimes loses families to the big shows happening at several mega churches within a few minutes of Johns Creek. He told me that if he can get them to stick around for a few months, sometimes they begin to see the appeal of a deep, grounded, and discerning faith. He swims in deep water.
Others suggested that most mega church pastors generally don’t do funerals. Record scratch – what? I wonder if they are so focused on engaging the culture and teaching about faithful living that they are in danger of missing the deeper pull of Christian community. It is about preparing for those rare, holy moments like marriage, baby dedication, baptism, communion, Advent and Easter – experiencing together deep joy and unspeakable sadness, grace through unexplained illness and the sometimes comfortable or fearful reality of death. Christian community often solidifies in these moments. The routines we establish in worship and in community set us up to notice and participate in the holy.
Churches are (or soon will be) in a protracted moment of change, reevaluation, and refocus of the routines for the way we worship and the way we do Christian community, with a goal of meeting the needs of this generation because Christ has called us to serve them. Change is hard, but can be so good. And if we are resistant to change, let’s read again the Gospel story of how a 33-year-old preacher changed everything.
David Burroughs
David Burroughs is the president & founder of Passport, Inc.