For those of you who "preach" or "teach" on Sundays, do you ever wonder what the point is? Far too often, I hear the comment, "I really liked your message - I actually remember what you said Sunday", as if that's a shocking thing. Don't hear me as saying I get those comments a lot, because I've preached plenty of bombs in my young career, but doesn't it get you to thinking: if people don't remember the message of your message or remember the words of one of the songs you sang, what's it really worth?
I was reflecting on the passage from Isaiah which talks about honoring the Sabbath by not speaking "idle words". How would you define idle words? How about half hour sermons that no one remembers 10 minutes after they're given or that don't give any impact to their lives. How about songs that are comfortable or eradicate our white guilt because they're in a different language? Come to think about it, I've sat through quite a few worship services that were chock full of "idle words" - its why there's some churches (and even the chapel at my own school) I have trouble sitting in, even though I affirm a universal Church. The words just seem so empty, as if they're being said for the sake of the words themselves. And yet, there's a strange normalness to it that reassures you that this is "just how it is". Its also why I'm disillusioned more and more with doing pulpit supply. How can someone coming into an unknown church, picking 5 hymns at random and preaching a "canned" message be anything but idle words?
For Pete's sake: if reading the newspaper is as spiritually transformative as going to church, why are we surprised that people don't want to come?
In being frustrated about sermon-giving and sermon-receiving throughout my lifetime (and especially my seminary career), I've often thought that maybe, just maybe, the redemptive panacea for sermonizing was some sort of combination of dynamism and content. After all, people remember when you suck as a sermon-giver (usually more than if you're marginally talented). And when preachers suck, its usually because they lack dynamism or content. Some preachers lack both, and while that's a topic for another day, just consider the main criteria we look for in future pastors: academic excellence (yes, the same academic excellence most churches could care less about).
However, I think that maybe non-idle preaching (or teaching) is more than just personal dynamism or content and I'd like to propose something new: How about if the words you're about to speak or the words you're about to lead people in singing are not passionate, authentic and transformative, keep them to yourself. Seriously....if it comes down to Sunday morning and you haven't got something that meets that criteria, just don't speak or sing. Would it really alter the course of anyone's spiritual direction? Other than make you look like you're not working your 40 hours, would people's lives be any different than if you would have spoken or sung?
I think what Isaiah is getting at in 58:13 is that God's day is not the time to waste time on our own fruitless measures. It sickens me when preachers preach messages that only benefit themselves. It troubles me when preachers try to impress their congregation by what they have to say or what research they've done. I think its unfortunate that so many preachers stand up on Sunday mornings to deliver a message because its what's supposed to be done to continue their "ministry of maintenance". There are a lot of well-educated, talented orators that just need to get off their high horses (or high pulpits), wake up and realize that their speaking is just noise because the chief beneficiary is the self. That is anti-Sabbath.
I've stopped repeating sermons. I hope if you're reading this, you do, too. Unless you really reshape the sermon to fit the context, you run a very high risk of speaking idle words. Preaching/teaching should always be driven by the unique situation to which you are addressing your words. We're far too often tempted to just do things the way they were done in our home church or in a church where we saw it work or how they told us to in school. The disciples were not charged with perpetuation, they were charged with innovation. They didn't do ministry exactly the way Jesus did it in exactly the same places - they each used their gifts and took the message to transform lives where the Spirit led.
I think we all (as speakers and worship leaders) need to own up to the fact that we've spoken "idle words" - words that are just words - with no power to evoke passion, no power to transform, and with no innovation. There might be times when we need to challenge the perpetuation norm. There might be times when we need to just shut up.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Doing Worship Ministry Poor
There is perhaps nothing in the church that gets me as passionate about ministry as poor, rural churches doing worship ministry well. After all, its where I got my start in ministry and its one of the few areas my brother and I are forcibly harmonious on.
Certainly, worship ministry has become a focus within the last 50 or so years in the Church at large. There are some that would say, and I'm often tempted to be one of them, that worship ministry is currently in an evolutionary pattern, from something that was not sustainable to something that is sustainable for the future growth of the Church. Without getting into that argument's validity, I think its important to point out that churches across the US have positioned themselves at one step along the path from traditional worship to post-modern worship (what I would call post-contemporary worship). Many churches claim to be blended, but blended often only means that you have one foot in two different places on the path or that you can't do anything well at all. That said, one of the main issues in worship ministry today is quality or, as some would put it, excellence. While this might be a commercial/advertising term in many cases, in its purest form, it is attempting to give of our worship "firstfruits" - giving our best, as a congregation, to the Lord.
I've spent my time in several churches over the years that, like all churches, have had their own unique issues in worship music. I've been yelled at, argued with, praised, chided, cheered for, walked out on, gossiped about and about every response you can have in ministry in the short time I've been leading worship. As I stated in the previous post, however, doing ministry in the Greenville/Belding area is often an exercise in the undone - exploring truly new ways of doing things and being resourceful with what you've been given. Once again, these are not all my thoughts, but have been contributed to by fellow worship pastors. To that end, I truly appreciate the thoughts of Dan, Nate, Scott, Jeff, and Paul. This is a journey we traverse together.
As with Youth Ministry, I very much wish somebody would write a book about doing ministry in a poor, rural environment. If that were not possible, I would settle for a book about either a poor or rural environment. In lieu of a book I am not yet experienced enough to write, here are some thoughts specifically about doing worship ministry poor:
Certainly, worship ministry has become a focus within the last 50 or so years in the Church at large. There are some that would say, and I'm often tempted to be one of them, that worship ministry is currently in an evolutionary pattern, from something that was not sustainable to something that is sustainable for the future growth of the Church. Without getting into that argument's validity, I think its important to point out that churches across the US have positioned themselves at one step along the path from traditional worship to post-modern worship (what I would call post-contemporary worship). Many churches claim to be blended, but blended often only means that you have one foot in two different places on the path or that you can't do anything well at all. That said, one of the main issues in worship ministry today is quality or, as some would put it, excellence. While this might be a commercial/advertising term in many cases, in its purest form, it is attempting to give of our worship "firstfruits" - giving our best, as a congregation, to the Lord.
I've spent my time in several churches over the years that, like all churches, have had their own unique issues in worship music. I've been yelled at, argued with, praised, chided, cheered for, walked out on, gossiped about and about every response you can have in ministry in the short time I've been leading worship. As I stated in the previous post, however, doing ministry in the Greenville/Belding area is often an exercise in the undone - exploring truly new ways of doing things and being resourceful with what you've been given. Once again, these are not all my thoughts, but have been contributed to by fellow worship pastors. To that end, I truly appreciate the thoughts of Dan, Nate, Scott, Jeff, and Paul. This is a journey we traverse together.
As with Youth Ministry, I very much wish somebody would write a book about doing ministry in a poor, rural environment. If that were not possible, I would settle for a book about either a poor or rural environment. In lieu of a book I am not yet experienced enough to write, here are some thoughts specifically about doing worship ministry poor:
- Shallow Talent Pool: For years, I neglected to consider how lucky I was to have not one, but two Christian colleges in my backyard in Orange City. It is truly amazing how many college students, both male and female, are capable of being phenomenal worship talents. If you don't believe me, check out your local Christian college's worship service. In many small communities, this worship service is the best thought-out, well-equipped service to be found for miles around. This isn't a mistake - its because in every Christian college dorm, there are 20 guitar players and vocalists galore. Even if you're nowhere close to a Christian college, however, living in a city provides so much untapped talent. Within a few blocks of your church's campus, my guess is that you can find hoards of talent in local bars, coffee shops, high school talent shows and lots of other artistic venues. That simply is not a luxury that affords itself to rural America. Artists, by their very nature, are driven away from the rural, the uneducated and the rural, "Redneck" poor. You don't see poetry readings or Jack Johnson concerts or hippie hangouts in small rural America. You also don't find loads of musical talent.
- There is Little Appreciation for the Arts: This point is exhibited by the previous point to some extent, but it should be noted that you cannot prepare an urban worship leader for what they will experience in taking the stage in a town like ours. I've often talked with fellow worship leaders (who are far better musicians than I) about the feeling of disgust and disappointment they feel after walking off the stage of their worship gatherings. In places where the arts are appreciated, musicians on stage are blown away by the energy, passion and sound of the crowd. Here, if you play a musically fantastic or musically defunct service, you get the same response - nothing. In short, there is little motivation for playing well, little motivation for giving your musical "firstfruits" to the Lord. Often, our job as rural worship leaders is to build up and compliment our musicians for a job well done because we know that if we rely on the normal complimentary spirit of the congregation, our musicians will burn out because they feel unsupported.
- Artistic Personality + Power = Trouble: There is a truth about those of us with an artistic persuasion that is true - we are moody. I think most artists and musicians would admit to you that they have weak moments of moodiness - depression, elation, rage and passion. This isn't so much a bad thing - its what fuels the beauty of the arts. However, what happens in many small churches is that it provides an opportunity for the worst parts of an artist's personality to become paramount. Think about every small rural church you know of that does not have paid worship personnel; isn't there one person who has taken over the show, bent it to their own needs and desires, driven many other people away and, even though they may be talented, brought the entire worship ministry down with them? Sadly, this is also true in many churches with staffed worship personnel. The sad reality is that any ministry, when there is a leadership void, will produce a leader who exercises control to their own tune over time. When you multiply this reality with the passionate personality of the artist, this is magnified. It is a sad reality that many worship programs - the most visible aspect of a church's ministry - can be and are being done in one or two people.
- Lack of Balance: It is a sad truth in many rural congregations that there is a lack of balance between outreach-driven attractional ministry and inreach-driven self-service. It is a true fact that all churches need dimensions of outreach and all churches need dimensions of inreach, but many churches are unable to find anything close to this balance. Sadly, many err dramatically on the side of inreaching. Many times this is due to an ugly combination of inexpensive and undesirable leadership, uneducated perspective, stubborn mindset, unintegrated Christian lifestyles and a disjointed view of outreach. This may sound judgmental, but last weekend I watched a church bonfire with one attendee, a corner Baptist protest with signs condemning motorists with KJV fire & brimstone, a hip-hop concert called "Summerfest for Jesus" and a ministry year kick-off with roughly one half of the church attending the one Sunday morning service. There are things that happen in the rural, poor church that are inexplicable, personalities that are disgusting and ideas that are horribly ill-formed. Without a system of accountability, many of these activities happen within our church walls and are branded with the name of Christ.
- Irrational Discussions: I've often heard the comment from younger folks who are working for worship change: "Why should I continue to embrace the other side of this discussion when they are simply tolerating us to our faces and gossiping behind our backs?" It is true that there are many irrational discussions that take place behind the scenes and sometimes on the scene of worship ministry based almost completely on personal preferences that have been misidentified as Biblical norms. We've all seen it on both sides. However, in a poor rural culture that believes email forwards about Barack Obama being a Muslim and the starting petitions to stop the government from charging to use your email, its easy to see how irrational arguments can become stubborn shouting matches
- Burnout: It is not surprising that so many people burn out. For the average church musician in a small town, you might be the only drummer or only guitarist your church has access to. In that case, they want you to play every Sunday, every service. For paid worship staff, this means that the grass looks greener in the city with every passing day and the endless cycle of talented ministry staff fleeing for large, suburban churches is perpetuated once again. It is tiring to run a basic worship ministry in your average suburban church - it is maddeningly exhausting to run one in a poor rural church where you are under-appreciated, often-maligned and tormented for shielding what musicians you do have from church persecution.
- Good Leadership is Hard to Find: If you've worked in a poor, rural church you already know about this one. Whereas in many churches, you'd have a quick short list of people who would be good leaders and point people for areas of worship ministry, doing ministry in this kind of a setting is often a one horse parade. You're happy if one of your musicians listens to Christian radio and knows some of the songs. You're happy if your instrumentalists will commit to showing up every two or three weeks. You're happy if you ever can hold a practice with everyone caring enough to show up. However, if you've worked in a suburban church, even a small one, you know that these pleasantries of the rural church are not enough to base a consistent, quality worship ministry on. They're a start, but they're not everything.
- Under-Resourced: When I came to my current church, the entire area of worship ministry had a budget that was just big enough to buy bulletin stock and communion supplies. Even with a good degree of lobbying on my part, we still are working with lots of equipment that either belongs to our musicians or has been donated from our own personal stashes. We cobble-job electronics all the time, we work EBay and Craig's List so we can buy the bare essentials and have some money left over. We have equipment that's not even legal by Federal Government standards and often times violate copyrights out of necessity. And we're a well-resourced worship ministry in this community. It is amazing to hear stories from other churches about shortcuts they've used, laws they've violated and one-man-band-type performances because they were not given the resources to do what was asked of them. Good worship ministry takes money - even bad worship ministry takes money. Don't take it for granted.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Doing Youth Ministry Poor
Back to a little blogging before the start of my final few classes which will, undoubtedly, get me riled up enough and leave me bored enough to get back into the blogosphere. So, here is the first of three blog entries about Doing Ministry Poor.
I was thinking back the other day about my Youth Ministry education in college compared to what my youth ministry looks like today. I've further reflected on it in conjunction with two fellow area youth pastors who have had to do ministry amongst the culture shock of post-factory Greenville and Belding, so thanks to Dan and Paul for their thoughts.
What is clear to all of us is that we are in a situation that our youth ministry educations and youth ministry experience did not prepare us for. Its very interesting to me, and rather frustrating, that the vast majority (if not all) of the ministry innovation resources you can pick up at your local Christian bookstore are geared at middle class and higher folks in urban or suburban areas. Don't believe me? Search CBD or Amazon and, other than Tex Sample, you won't find anything under the category "rural" or "blue collar". Theoretically, ministry innovations and models are conceptual, and therefore just need to be applied differently in urban, suburban and rural churches. What we're finding more and more is that it is the very models of youth ministry which must be altered to work in our area.
The one experience which does inform ministry here for me was working in Appalachia. Having known folks working in Martin County, KY (the former poorest county per capita in the country) is consistently similar to working in Montcalm County, MI (the current poorest county per capita).
Many churches have given up. Some churches have given up because they have been backed into a financial corner by their own parishioners or by poor mortgage decisions. Some churches insist on doing white collar ministry in a blue collar community, pinning their hopes on the bank employees, civic leaders and Grand Rapids commuters. One such church recently left our neighborhood and built anew 5 miles outside the city limits. Its really hard to blame them - after all, ministry innovations, resources and concepts are geared for white collar ministry, seminaries train pastors for white collar ministry, white collar ministry is more economically secure and white collar ministry is usually more consistent, with people taking responsibility in areas of volunteerism and leadership.
Other than when I lived in Appalachia, I have always been a part of white collar ministries and it is all I knew. Its all many of us knew before coming here. Its all many of our churches knew before the factories left town. Its all older brothers and sisters of current young people knew and now their younger siblings are left with scaled-back programs and non-staff leaders.
The distinctives of doing "poor" youth ministry, as I see it, are as follows. First of all, events must be low-cost or free. We give away virtually everything and when we do plan the occasional out-of-town trip, we end up covering the entire cost of those kids whose parents can't afford food for their own tables or like to spend the money on themselves. Second, "poor" youth ministry doesn't value the arts or technology like white collar ones do. While kids everywhere still love Guitar Hero and big screen TV's, blogs, big name Christian concerts, contemporary worship services, art shows and the like are out the window. Third, teaching must be more innovative. The brunt facts are that lecturing is not attractional and small groups are hit or miss in terms of effectiveness. Where you go from that depends on how creative you can get. Fourth, good lay leadership is tougher to come by in blue collar churches. This is especially true for anything that happens on a day other than Sunday, but its true for Sundays, too. Fifth, community collaboration is the one of the few rays of hope for smaller churches which can't afford a youth staff position, but that truth is unequivocally hitched to the benevolence of larger churches who are willing to be sacrificial of themselves. Sixth, it occurs to me that "success" in youth ministry might be measured differently in the blue collar community. Whereas in a white collar ministry, success might be students in discipleship programs, individual mission efforts, Christian college attendence or marrying a Christian partner, it seems to me we might be ecstatic about our students not winding up in jail, getting into community college, not getting pregnant before age 21, or, ironically, getting out of town. Finally, in a more immediate way than in an urban, educated area, quality rural churches do not start at ground zero in terms of legitimacy. To put it another way, extremist churches, which often gain a more prevalent voice in less-educated communities, leave level-headed churches with ground to make up, even before being evangelistic or missional in their communities. In short, we need to convince the public that we're not naive idiots before we can even have an audience to share the gospel. If you don't believe me, check out my pictures from our good friends here in town: Liberty Photos.
What occurs to me is that youth ministry here (and in Appalachia) feels like a more needed ministry. Ultimately, in the consumer-driven culture that is youth ministry (maybe the biggest consistency between urban & rural), its sometimes easy to go home at the end of the day and wonder if your presence was really needed - if your youth ministry is even really needed. After all, stats show that kids who graduate from churches with dedicated youth programs fall into moral decay at the same rate as those without them and ultimately spiritually mature parents generally spawn spiritually mature students and vice versa regardless of what we do as youth pastors. However, in an area without hope such as Greenville, Belding or Appalachia - where depression is as much psychological as economic - where entire generations have become non-religious, perhaps doing youth ministry here, no matter how thankless and frustrating, is youth ministry in its very best form.
I was thinking back the other day about my Youth Ministry education in college compared to what my youth ministry looks like today. I've further reflected on it in conjunction with two fellow area youth pastors who have had to do ministry amongst the culture shock of post-factory Greenville and Belding, so thanks to Dan and Paul for their thoughts.
What is clear to all of us is that we are in a situation that our youth ministry educations and youth ministry experience did not prepare us for. Its very interesting to me, and rather frustrating, that the vast majority (if not all) of the ministry innovation resources you can pick up at your local Christian bookstore are geared at middle class and higher folks in urban or suburban areas. Don't believe me? Search CBD or Amazon and, other than Tex Sample, you won't find anything under the category "rural" or "blue collar". Theoretically, ministry innovations and models are conceptual, and therefore just need to be applied differently in urban, suburban and rural churches. What we're finding more and more is that it is the very models of youth ministry which must be altered to work in our area.
The one experience which does inform ministry here for me was working in Appalachia. Having known folks working in Martin County, KY (the former poorest county per capita in the country) is consistently similar to working in Montcalm County, MI (the current poorest county per capita).
Many churches have given up. Some churches have given up because they have been backed into a financial corner by their own parishioners or by poor mortgage decisions. Some churches insist on doing white collar ministry in a blue collar community, pinning their hopes on the bank employees, civic leaders and Grand Rapids commuters. One such church recently left our neighborhood and built anew 5 miles outside the city limits. Its really hard to blame them - after all, ministry innovations, resources and concepts are geared for white collar ministry, seminaries train pastors for white collar ministry, white collar ministry is more economically secure and white collar ministry is usually more consistent, with people taking responsibility in areas of volunteerism and leadership.
Other than when I lived in Appalachia, I have always been a part of white collar ministries and it is all I knew. Its all many of us knew before coming here. Its all many of our churches knew before the factories left town. Its all older brothers and sisters of current young people knew and now their younger siblings are left with scaled-back programs and non-staff leaders.
The distinctives of doing "poor" youth ministry, as I see it, are as follows. First of all, events must be low-cost or free. We give away virtually everything and when we do plan the occasional out-of-town trip, we end up covering the entire cost of those kids whose parents can't afford food for their own tables or like to spend the money on themselves. Second, "poor" youth ministry doesn't value the arts or technology like white collar ones do. While kids everywhere still love Guitar Hero and big screen TV's, blogs, big name Christian concerts, contemporary worship services, art shows and the like are out the window. Third, teaching must be more innovative. The brunt facts are that lecturing is not attractional and small groups are hit or miss in terms of effectiveness. Where you go from that depends on how creative you can get. Fourth, good lay leadership is tougher to come by in blue collar churches. This is especially true for anything that happens on a day other than Sunday, but its true for Sundays, too. Fifth, community collaboration is the one of the few rays of hope for smaller churches which can't afford a youth staff position, but that truth is unequivocally hitched to the benevolence of larger churches who are willing to be sacrificial of themselves. Sixth, it occurs to me that "success" in youth ministry might be measured differently in the blue collar community. Whereas in a white collar ministry, success might be students in discipleship programs, individual mission efforts, Christian college attendence or marrying a Christian partner, it seems to me we might be ecstatic about our students not winding up in jail, getting into community college, not getting pregnant before age 21, or, ironically, getting out of town. Finally, in a more immediate way than in an urban, educated area, quality rural churches do not start at ground zero in terms of legitimacy. To put it another way, extremist churches, which often gain a more prevalent voice in less-educated communities, leave level-headed churches with ground to make up, even before being evangelistic or missional in their communities. In short, we need to convince the public that we're not naive idiots before we can even have an audience to share the gospel. If you don't believe me, check out my pictures from our good friends here in town: Liberty Photos.
What occurs to me is that youth ministry here (and in Appalachia) feels like a more needed ministry. Ultimately, in the consumer-driven culture that is youth ministry (maybe the biggest consistency between urban & rural), its sometimes easy to go home at the end of the day and wonder if your presence was really needed - if your youth ministry is even really needed. After all, stats show that kids who graduate from churches with dedicated youth programs fall into moral decay at the same rate as those without them and ultimately spiritually mature parents generally spawn spiritually mature students and vice versa regardless of what we do as youth pastors. However, in an area without hope such as Greenville, Belding or Appalachia - where depression is as much psychological as economic - where entire generations have become non-religious, perhaps doing youth ministry here, no matter how thankless and frustrating, is youth ministry in its very best form.
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