Rock Stars and Concerts

Just because I am in my 60s now, this is not a post about the good ole’ days of hymns.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s. Rock music was well established in my lifetime. I enjoy all genres of music. Yes, even the new genres. (I am not a person who listens to music as much as most of my friends.)

If you ask me for my least favorite music, it would probably be an organ playing some hymns. The “bar” tunes to those hymns, played by an organ make me feel like I am at a baseball game. Now, an organ playing more classical tunes in some hymns are majestic. Anyway, this post is not about the actual music.

This post is about the popular preacher and the typical American evangelical church service.

I am not sure when it happened, but I assume it may have been as a result of the camp meetings in the 19th century. The typical evangelical church service now places the most importance on the sermon. Everything else leads up to the sermon, or as I like to describe it, the TEDTalk.

The opening act of most church services is the rock concert or hymn sing.

In the near past, everything led up to the communion table. Now most Sundays do not include communion at all. Even in those churches today that still lead up to communion every Sunday, I am not sure that the way the church does communion would resemble anything like the love feasts of the early church.

Our cultures evolve and church services will be different across cultures. I do not want to suggest that we need to implement a 1st century cultural expression of the church in the 21st century. We also do not need to “export” the American evangelical expression of the church to other cultures.

I do wonder if our churches are designed to focus more on the rock stars on stage than King Jesus. I do wonder if the preacher role has become more important than the pastor role. I do wonder if the performer role has become more important than the worship leader role.

Think with me about what is communicated to the non-Christian culture when we have multi-site campuses beaming the sermon from one place with one person. Who is the most important person in the church in this setup? Who do we glorify? This seems to have more to do about branding. If these preachers were the most scholarly and understood the Scriptures and Jesus more than anyone else, I could see the need to expose this to as many people as possible. But, it seems like most of these preachers have more skills at motivational speaking than scholarship.

Most of the sermons are what could be called “motivational, moralistic, therapeutic, Biblicism.” The Bible is treated as a self-help handbook to make yourself a more moralistic person and to self-treat your dysfunctional issues. The speaker gives a speech to motivate the crowd to follow prescribed “rules for life” pulled from verses. You might think this is isolated to topical sermons. But, even preachers who do “expository preaching” parse the passage to present the “rules for life.”

I often call this “Tim Tebow” preaching. He can take Philippians 4:13 and make it a “rule for life” for football skills. So many “rules for life” have been pulled from the book of Philippians that I doubt Paul would recognize it.

Lectures are the fastest education method to distribute information and the least effective education method to catch information. Lectures can’t be nuanced well. Each person in the audience enters the lecture hall with their own thoughts. Each person’s life situation will cause them to hear something different. The lecturer may be surprised by how a word or phrase was heard by each person. Wounds may be healed in some hearers and created in other hearers of the same words. Lectures give little opportunity for reflection, questioning and clarification.

Personally, I have struggled with the question, “Why do we gather?” for quite a long time. A typical answer has been the verse Hebrews 10:25. Again, taking a text out of context to create a “rule for life.” To me this is a platitude, not an answer to my question. I had hoped that with the disruption of church services due to the pandemic that others might find this a good time to explore this same question.

Here is some of my exploration.

In the 21st century, I have access to multitudes of scholarly expositions of the Bible in print, in podcasts and online to better understand King Jesus and what it means to be a citizen of his kingdom. I do not need a lecture at the gathering.

In the 21st century, I have access to multitudes of superior performances of most songs. I do not need a performance at the gathering.

I need community. I need relationships. I need to break habits caused by my individualism. For me, I do not find community in a gathering of 200+.

I need diversity. I need to get out of my personal tribalism.

I need interaction to refine my thoughts. With all of the voices that say different things, I need others who can handle my questions and can challenge my thinking.

Here is my current vision of gatherings:

• Opportunities to be led into the throne room of heaven with all of the saints living and dead. To use all of our bodies to express devotion to King Jesus. Guided by Scripture readings, petitions, awe-invocations, praises, laments and imprecations. To transition to focus on the “Lamb” and to commemorate his sacrifice with communion.
• Opportunities to fellowship with a small group of people who know me and I know them. Opportunities to interact, encourage, challenge and most of all care for one another. Opportunities to eat and drink together.
• Opportunities to be guided in a larger community. Opportunities to ask questions, explore the Scriptures for answers and to help identify resources for further study.
• Opportunities to meet needs and to have needs met, both within the larger community and outside the community.

When we lived in St. Pete, we tried to create these opportunities in the young adult gatherings we helped lead. The parts that worked well in a home worked well in these gatherings. But, when we tried to expand these to a larger gathering, it seemed to fail. People seemed to be looking for what they found familiar. (songs, announcements and sermon).

Maybe I am the only one who wants something different.

First posted May 8, 2021

Comment from Kristin:

📷 I long for something different, too.