miletwo::network

The call to missional worship

Do you want to know how to get church goers angry with you? Change something. Wanna see them get REALLY tee’d off?  Try changing the worship culture.

In Gresham, Oregon, in our little church on Hogan, the other elders and I have recently begun to try and tackle the task of creating a stronger definition of the intent behind our worship culture; be it music, visual imagery, drama, whatever… what is our purpose behind the arts we use? What we’ve come up with is that we’re hoping to create an environment that is challenging to mature believers and yet intelligible to the rest of culture. Yea… good luck, huh?

Admittedly this is no easy task. As we head into this season I’ve begun to investigate with other modern church leaders just exactly how to go about this. In the past I’ve been part of a thriving and relevant worship arts culture at a 1,000+ member church, planted a church with a highly relevant worship culture, but this is the first time I’ve ever been involved in this dynamic… changing “that’s the way we’ve always done it” into “how can we best reach our community?”

The Titanic can turn on a dime… right?

Hang on to your hats kids, it’s gonna get wild; but… the prize is definitely worth the cost.

How did we get here?

Have you ever run a race and needed to stop part way through? What happens to the rest of the pack? Where do you end up?

Okay, I’ll admit… that’s a dumb analogy, or perhaps not so much.

Much the same has happened to many churches in America where it seems like one day they stopped to tie their shoe and when they looked up the rest of the crowd had moved on. Did they just decide to stop running because they felt like they couldn’t catch up? Paul tells us in Philippians to “press on,” continuing to run the race so that we can win the prize, forgetting what is behind us, or where we stopped to tie our shoe and be the mature ones, continuing to be about the work and not just the namesake. He asks us to use him as an example of what we should be like.  Guess what? He didn’t spend a ton of time arguing about what kind of context HE liked, but he did expend considerable effort determining the context of those around him who didn’t know Christ so that he could find ways to introduce them to the Master.

The truth kids, is that we’ve forgotten the examples that were laid before us. We’ve arrived at the place we’re in because we’ve stopped running. Statistics in my neighborhood are startling. Projections for the coming 5 years within 5 miles of our church say that 11k people will move in, 25% of which will be Hispanics (yes, we’re a predominantly white church), and 50% of the total have no faith in anything.

That tells me we have some ground to make up.

What I’ve come to realize in discussions with faith leaders around the country is that we lose relevance when our focus shifts from eternity and narrows to right now. When we move from mission to maintenance we start caring more about making a nest than filling the nest or even raising our young. We have stopped reaching into our cultures and instead have created our own culture within the culture, and guess what… it’s foreign to those we’re supposed to be reaching. It just doesn’t make sense to anyone but us.

Plus, the longer we avoid change and begin to run again the wider the gap becomes.

Now where do we go?

Well, you’re still reading… that’s a good sign. The first step to recovery is always admitting that you have a problem.

So, how do we catch up? How do we get back on track?

Here’s a revelation… START TODAY!

The first thing that church leaders must do is to identify the gap between where we are culturally and where our community is culturally then develop a plan to build a bridge between them. In Dan Kimball’s book – They Like Jesus but Not the Church he describes this as a “bridge to a bridge” scenario. Our evangelistic story used to be one of describing the chasm that sin creates between us and God and how Jesus is the bridge that restores our relationship to him. In Kimball’s version, we now have the new task of creating a cultural bridge to the church because in many ways the cultural differences between the church and the world have become a huge hurdle to get over on their own. We say things like “washed in the blood” and “fellowship,” even “penal substitutionary atonement” and the rest of the world just says, “huh?”  In order to make our “come and see” strategies work, we first have to bridge the gap in culture that the church has created. This will serve to make the pathways in our church for seekers to encounter Christ much more attainable. Yes, it can happen even if we do nothing. We could stay exactly the way we are and people will still meet Jesus. Or, we could race to catch up and bring them in droves.

This is the task set before us in transforming our worship cultures.

If we are to be relevant to our communities so that they can have access to the real Christ we have to first be willing to prioritize this mission above our own preferences. This is not to say that we start consuming a steady diet of rock-n-roll (not that that would be so bad) but that we be willing to put our style preferences on the alter of worship to Christ for HIS kingdom.  And, guess what? This isn’t just something that happens with a few leaders at the top. It’s a value that must become fundamental to every member in the body; that our mission in this world, and our discipleship of each other for HIS purpose and plan is primary. We must accept that cultural style is “context” only, a tool to be used for the mission.

Plotting a course

We’ve recognize we have some ground to cover. We’re ready to let go of our comfortable liturgy if necessary and embrace change. Now what?

Step 1: Get to know your neighborhood.

When was the last time you barbecued with people in your neighborhood who weren’t already Jesus followers? How about your <gasp> neighbors on your street? Do you know where the schools are in your area? What is the demographic makeup of each one?

Step 2: OWN IT!

In order to effect change in your church your leadership must own the mission.
This means that the church leadership (elder board, deacons, lay leaders, etc.) first need to identify their goals for corporate worship, the specific target they intend to reach, and then “own” whatever the style is that attaches to that. Unless leaders become unified in their vision of corporate worship, then each leader will approach the target differently. Everything from  interpreting the style requirements to order of worship will be based on the individuals perspective of what’s needed.

The Sr. Pastor MUST FIRST identify his expectations for what the transformation looks like (specifically, not generally) and then communicate that to his staff and volunteers.

The Worship Arts Pastor and other worship arts volunteers MUST identify their expectations for what the transformation look like (specifically, not generally) and then determine if their expectations match those of the leadership. Are they the same? Is there a disconnect? If there is a disconnect is it minor and solvable or major and insurmountable? Are they constraints like budget or time that need to be addressed in order to marry those visions?

And lastly, the leadership (senior pastor especially) need to solidify their resolve to support that change at any cost. Why? Because the souls of the lost are at stake.

Now is where we start getting afraid. We think “If we make too much change our people will leave.” And, they might. First lets own this: that although equipping our saints is an important task, it’s not the only task. The reason we’re all still here instead of at home with God is that we have work yet to be completed. The lost will not be found without missional hearts ready to go and live Jesus to them. Second lets address the real problem. We have stopped “equipping” and “discipling” believers for service to the Master, and instead we’ve moved to “teaching” believers to be good and presented missions as “to all the world” meaning… far away places. We need to constantly be reminding people that missional is first in your own backyard, then into all the world.

So, what’s the fix? Invite warriors to join in the mission. When you receive helpful notes from your octegenarians or worried moms about loud music or tattoed hippies, it’s because you FAILED to disciple. You forgot to remind them of the mission we have to our community and to the world. Remind the silvers that they are useful for the kingdom in mentoring young people for living. Remind dads that there is a generation of young men without good daddy examples who are RAGING in frustration over the confusion this world has created for them. Teach them to be godly men. Remind moms that there is a generation of young women without experience in being a woman or examples of what womanhood is about. Teach them to be godly women.

Your body will be much more willing to accept a change in worship culture and style if you communicate who it’s for, that changes are made so that the work of “missions” can be done in your community and those with no knowledge of God can come to know him through a relationship with Christ.

Final thoughts for church leaders:

• Do you know who you are trying to reach (specifically, not generally) in your community?
• Have you fully examined that group’s culture in order to become intentional with your contextualization?
• Have you created a clear plan of action for the environment you will create to reach them (elementally, stylistically, etc.)?
• Have you clearly communicated your vision for worship culture to your Worship Arts leaders and fully empowered them to engage there?
• Have you fully accepted, owned, and communicated coming change to your body so that they can be on this mission with you?

One final reminder: our mission is people, our message is new life in Christ, and the cost is everything we have to give.

jeremy Churchianity, Leadership