The American Way and the Way(wardness) of the Church's Worship

Today marks the fourth day of Christmas, a day commemorated in the western Church as Holy Innocents. The day of Holy Innocents remembers the children who were tortuously killed by King Herod in his failed effort to mute the child who would be and is the only rightful King of Israel, Jesus the Christ. Unlike the secular calendar, which reduces Christmas to one day only, the majority of the Church around the world celebrates Christmas for twelve consecutive days, until the time of Epiphany (which begins on January 6th).

While this Christmas has been a time of immense joy and thanksgiving for me personally, the occasion of the season has also reminded me of the liturgical largess and theological barrenness which seems to characterize so much of the church in America today. Like the culture at large, for much of the church there appeared to be no shortage of cheap commercialization and unbridled consumerism to memorialize the mystery of the Incarnation this Christmas. Apparently the heralding angelic announcement of Emmanuel, God with us, is severely weakened without the aid of laser-light shows, rock concert renditions of Jingle Bells, and a sermon series on 'How Not to be a Grinch.'

Now, I don't want to discount the good intentions that lay behind these attempts to make the church more palatable to pagans. The people who promote such ideas are noble, I'm sure. Rather, I merely want to suggest that, in their earnest efforts to make the gospel relevant to the wider culture, they inevitably minimized -- or perhaps lost altogether -- the very person who they were meaning to promote: Jesus. The means became the message, in other words. For when the church is indistinguishable from the culture -- whether in form or in substance -- it has nothing of real consequence to say to the culture. That, in my opinion, is what many church's forfeited this Christmas: a word of substance, of lasting consequence, for cheap gimmicks and fleeting commercialized slogans. In their efforts to win the crowd they lost their soul.

The late, great pastor-theologian, Eugene Peterson. If pastors are looking to emulate someone, it should be Peterson.

All this leads me to reflect on a pointed critique of the American church by the late pastor-theologian, (+) Eugene Peterson. In the opening chapter of his timely and illuminating book, The Jesus Way, Peterson describes the path of 'The American Way' and how much of the church has succumbed to follow it without hesitation. By going down the path of the 'American Way,' however, as Peterson argues, the church has willfully abandoned the narrow yet life-transforming path of the Jesus Way, that is, the way of costly grace, suffering, and the Cross. The cruciform life becomes the consumer life. Here's Peterson in his own words. I invite you to contemplate them as you consider the worship culture of your own church.

The great American innovation in the congregation is to turn it into a consumer enterprise. We Americans have developed a culture of acquisition, an economy that is dependent on wanting more, requiring more. We have a huge adverting industry designed to stir up appetites we didn't even know we had. We are insatiable.

It didn't take long for some of our Christian brothers and sisters to develop consumer congregations. If we have a nation of consumers, obviously the quickest and most effective way to get them into our congregations is to identify what they want and offer it to them, satisfy their fantasies, promise them the moon, recast the gospel in consumer terms: entertainment, satisfaction, excitement, adventure, problem-solving, whatever.

This is the language we Americans grow up on, the language we understand. We are the world's champion consumers, so why shouldn't we have state-of-the-art consumer churches?Given the conditions prevailing in our culture, this is the best and most effective way that has ever been devised for gathering large and prosperous congregations. Americans lead the world in showing how to do it.

There is only one thing wrong: this is not the way in which God brings us into conformity with the life of Jesus and sets us on the way of Jesus' salvation. This is not the way in which we become less and Jesus becomes more. This is not the way in which our sacrificed lives become available to others in justice and service. The cultivation of consumer spirituality is the antithesis of a sacrificial, 'deny yourself' congregation. A consumer church is an antichrist church.

Peterson captures the essence of the matter perfectly, I think. There are many elements contributing to this corrosive consumerist mentality, to be sure; but, behind it all is a vision of the church falsely predicated on three distinct, 'antichrist' premises.

The first false premise is that the Church is an organization rather than an organism. For St. Augustine, the Church is an indissoluble part of what he called the Totus Christus -- 'the whole Christ' -- comprised of Christ as the Head and the Church as the Body. Historically, the Church has not understood itself as a random collection of individuals who happen to have Jesus in their heart. And it has certainly never seen itself as a damn corporation with pastors who model CEOs and prize 'leadership studies' over theology. Instead, the Church has always maintained, following St. Paul, that it is the Body of Christ, the community of the baptized, who participate together in the life of Christ through the sacraments and whose common identity, moreover, is forged in the practices of prayer, confession, mission, and solidarity with the poor.

Some theologians have also observed the Church to be like the 'School of Christ' (Calvin), wherein Christians are tutored in the way of Christ by the perfecting-love of the Holy Spirit. In the Church Christians learn to be disciples of Jesus. The Church does not exist to give you an 'experience.' By contrast, the Church exists to teach you how to worship the Triune God rightly, so that in turn your life might bear witness to the good news of what God has done in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit for the sake of the world.

Second, the consumer church as Peterson describes it is predicated on the dangerous and theologically vapid assumption that it is somehow up to us -- i.e., the pastors, the staff, the 'leaders' -- to build Christ's Church for him. As a friend of mine recently pointed out, the very idea that the growth of the Church is dependent on its pastors betrays a remarkably poor, perhaps even nonexistent, theology of the Holy Spirit.

Additionally, this false premise gives license to churches to act in ways that fit their 'church growth' strategy rather than orienting their practices toward what they see in Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition, and the historic Church more generally. On this score, then, the evangelistic trope "reaching the lost" becomes a thin protective gloss stretched tightly over every secular (mal)practice conceivable to suit the shifting desires of a Christian culture that thinks being 'relevant' is more 'effective' than being faithful. When this mentality takes hold the Church is no longer a way-station for weary pilgrims; rather, it is an amusement park for inveterate tourist.

Third, arguably one of the most conspicuous ways in which the false notion underlying the consumerist church manifests itself is in the practice of worship. If the church is a corporation utilizing market forces, creative advertising, and consumer metrics to grow in numbers, then it stands to reason that it must provide an appealing product people want to consume. By this logic, the alternative is stagnation and eventual death. If a church is not growing, then it is dying. Under the guises of being 'seeker sensitive,' 'reaching the lost,' or 'culturally relevant' many churches are willing to hastily truncate any semblance of historical or theological continuity with the wider catholic Church in an effort to not offend someone or impede them from 'coming to Jesus.' Tradition; liturgy; catechesis; sacraments; robust preaching -- these are merely historical ornaments, outdated decorum, unfashionable to the 'unchurched,' so it is wrongfully assumed. Thus they are easily set aside to make them feel more comfortable and to bring them into an 'authentic experience.'

This way of thinking is analogous to inviting new friends to your home for dinner, but, before they arrive, you strip the walls of all your family pictures, go into extravagant debt to purchase new furniture, completely remodel the main rooms of the house, and hire an expensive chef to do all the cooking so they can feel more welcome in your home. Virtually everything about your home that once made it warm and inviting, every personal artifact that represented part of the story of your life, is now gone, replaced by an aesthetic facade. You whitewashed your identity, fearing that your new friends might be threatened by it, when it was the real you they were intrigued to know all along. Such actions aren't inviting; they're disingenuous.

Like it or not, this seems to be an accurate description of what passes for 'modern worship' in much of the American church today. It is a futile exercise in trying to be something the Church has never been before in order to meet the demands of the consumer market which is seeking something other than historic Christianity. Hence the rock concerts, choreographed light shows, repurposed wood, designer stage-sets, emotionally-charged, vacuous, egocentric music, self-help preaching, Super Bowl baptisms, leadership groupthink, MMA Men's Retreats, pre-packaged communion elements, outlandish coffee-shops, 'values statements', manipulative evangelistic schemes, and ego-driven pastors -- sorry, 'leaders' -- who would rather 'give a talk' about being 'courageous in the face of your lions' than preach a theologically rich sermon about the demands of being crucified with Christ or the distinction between the immanent and the economic Trinity and why it matters for the world. This new way of being church utterly rejects the treasury of gifts the historic Church preserved for it. Such is the church, therefore, that produces thrill-seekers not disciple-makers.

And the shallowness of this worship culture reaches far beyond the confines of the larger mega-churches, although they are the ones who inevitably 'cast the vision' for it. Many smaller churches too have caught this nasty, pernicious virus and it is running its shallow course. Even those churches who seemingly take discipleship seriously think the flashing lights and catchy branding strategy have evangelistic purchase. The allure (or idol?) of the American Way is inescapable. Historic Christianity is simply unimaginable to the market-driven church.

Some of you reading this may be thinking, 'typical Ben; he's always criticizing the church.' Let me respond by saying, unequivocally, that I love the Church. I have lived my entire life in the Church, I have served the Church, and I've never once considered leaving the Church, nor would I. I simply wouldn't be the person I am today without the love of Christ shown to me in the warm embrace of the Church. So my criticisms are written from a firm, immovable position within the walls of the Church. And it is out of my deep love for the Church -- the entire catholic Church -- that my words are blunt and unpolished.

Specifically, like Peterson, I am concerned by certain dominant trends largely found in American Evangelicalism. Thankfully, God has seen it fit to do extraordinary things for the advancement of God's Kingdom through this wing of the Church. Untold numbers of people now have a deep, rich, vibrant, and abiding faith in Jesus as a result of this young movement. But, being so young, the evangelical church is mostly rootless: it's never desired to plant its seeds in deeper theological soil. Additionally, it is seemingly ignorant, naive, and at times disdainful toward the Church's history and wise-worn practices. As such, it is especially vulnerable to being tossed around by every wind of secular doctrine that happens to blow its way. Hence the description I outlined above.

For me this is not a matter of whether the form, style, or substance of evangelical worship and ecclesiology are sinful or not. That is another matter to address in another post. Rather, the burden of my criticisms are concerned with the posture of its practices and their ability to form mature disciples fit for life in the Kingdom. In short, this is about the virtues of wisdom, maturity, and serious theological reasoning -- almost none of which is evident in the large portions of evangelical culture I've been describing. In another post, I plan to outline a positive case for necessity of liturgical practices in the formation of disciples. But, before I close this long reflection, let me submit a few questions for your consideration.

Questions:

• How do you or your pastor see the connection between corporate worship and Christian formation?

• Does your church take discipleship and disciple-making seriously? How so?

• Is your church's corporate worship serious (which does not equate to a lack of joy!)?

• Is your church's worship theologically and biblically rooted? If so, how much actual Scripture is read or sung during the service?

• Do the songs you sing reflect your idea of who God is or do they accurately reflect Scripture's portrait of who God is?

• Is there space for suffering, lament, and truth-telling in your worship? Are people allowed to name and give their burdens to the congregation?

• Likewise, is there space for genuine forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace-building in your worship?

• Is there room for silence, for listening, in your worship?

• How serious is the sacramental practice baptism taken in your church? Do candidates have a process of instruction before their baptism or are they baptized instantaneously? Does your church continue to walk closely with the newly baptized post baptism?