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The Church is still alive: Forecasted ‘death tsunami’ just another exaggeration
October 28, 2014 / By Christian Vischi / .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
You can read about the question and answer session with Upper New York Resident Bishop Mark J. Webb that followed this message by clicking here.
One of the “stark realities of the denomination” is that The United Methodist Church has weaknesses, “but God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness.”
That was the opening message of the Rev. Jacob Armstrong’s third appearance during the 2014 Bishop’s Retreat for Upper New York clergy at the High Peaks Resort in Lake Placid.
Rev. Jacob ArmstrongRev. Armstrong, founder and pastor of Providence Church in Mount Juliet, Tenn., was the guest speaker at the retreat and his messages throughout were on the theme of effective preaching.
Raise your hand if you have a weakness
Several years ago Rev. Armstrong was working in his barn during one of his days off. He had been working on something over his head all day.
“My first mistake was that it was manual labor,” he said with a smile.
He went inside that evening and one of his girls – he and wife, Rachel, have three daughters, Mary, Lydia, and Phoebe – pointed out that his arm was purple. After a trip to the emergency room and several tests he was diagnosed with thoracic outlet obstruction. He went to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville “many times” for procedures that could, in theory, “fix my arm,” he said.
But one day he was talking with the head of vascular surgery at Vanderbilt, who told Rev. Armstrong the damage was not repairable.
“You are just going to have to deal with it, live with it,” he was told. “There is one thing that you can do that will help you,” and then the surgeon raised his hand and said: “Do this.”
Rev. Armstrong was a little skeptical, but he has followed the doctor’s order to keep raising his hand ever since.
“So when I am at church and I do this, it is not because I am super spiritual, it is because I am just trying to get the blood back out of my arm,” Rev. Armstrong said.
God’s strength is made perfect “in my weakness,” he said, “therefore, I will gladly boast in my infirmities.”
Still just as beautiful as ever
One of the infirmities of the Church is perception.
Rev. Armstrong was sitting in a pastors meeting where the topic of conversation was the Church. A pastor across the table looks him “dead in the eye” and says, “Your wife is ugly.” He repeated it a second time – “he should have explained himself quicker,” Rev. Armstrong said – before everyone came to the conclusion that he was talking about how people belittle the Church.
“His point was that we were there dogging out the bride of Christ. … I still don’t like that guy at all,” Rev. Armstrong said, eliciting a laugh from the crowd, “but do we believe that Jesus still looks at the Church as a thing of beauty, and if so, should that affect how we talk about her?”
Some people think the Church is hypocritical and judgmental, and worse than that, he said, many people have moved to not even thinking about the Church at all.
“I believe in the Church. That is (a creed) that we should reclaim,” Rev. Armstrong said.
Wearing “a little white dress” Rev. Armstrong was baptized in a small church in 1980. But the road that got him and his family there was a long, winding one.
His family was “disconnected.” His mother did not grow up in a church, and she moved around the West for a bit before settling in Nashville. Someone eventually invited the family to a new church start that was meeting in a trailer.
That date in 1980 is not only important to Rev. Armstrong’s spiritual life but to his mother’s as well: She was baptized alongside her son.
God’s call “was an insatiable pull on all of us. I think about how my baptism … changed the course of my history, so I am thankful for that,” he said.
So he hesitates at the declaration that some people make of liking Jesus but not church.
“I wonder, would Jesus go for that? Would He say, ‘You can just have me (and not the Church)’?” Rev. Armstrong asked.
Rev. Armstrong became a pastor because he believes in the Church. “Had it not been for a pastor in a church and that was not (a) glamourous (church),” then he wouldn’t be here today. “The church wasn’t second or third on my list, it is the best thing going, even though it is broken and battered,” he said as many clergy in the room nodded or answered in agreement.
“We love the Church. We love the bride of Christ,” he said.
Opening the closed loop
The media, among other entities, is forecasting a “death tsunami” for the Church, Rev. Armstrong said. While American churches of all denominations may be on hospice care, the Church will not die.
Bishop's Retreat attendees joined Rev. Jacob Armstrong in a time of prayer. (Photos by Christian Vischi)In places like China, where the Communist government has begun a three-phase plan to eradicate unregistered house churches, the Church has continued to grow despite such persecution.
“The Church is dependent on God, not us. It is fueled on God, not our effort or ingenuity,” Rev. Armstrong said, but that doesn’t mean that people can sit back, idly, waiting for something to happen.
“The Church is still alive, but the Church has to change,” he said. One way is by "opening the closed loop," meaning a church's culture has to be inviting, and new parishioners have to be able to assimilate easily.
Many churches have brought in screens and a praise band. Perhaps the pastor wears jeans. But has the culture changed? One of the worst things a potential parishioner can say is, “They just felt fine whether I was there or not,” Rev. Armstrong suggested.
It's important to remember that a new person in the pews may not understand why a rummage sale is so great, why you spend 15 minutes on announcements before the service begins, what “passing the peace” means, or where the narthex is.
Rev. Armstrong suggested four steps to opening the loop:
- Opening the closed loop demands intentionality – “A worship service that lacks intentionality will exclude people who are not accustomed to our ways. And Jesus cares about those people. A lot.”
- Intentionality starts with preparation – So ask why: why is a particular song being sung, why are these announcements being highlighted, why are we using so many acronyms in the bulletin? “Then people will come to appreciate the intentional decisions.”
- Intentionality does not mean excellence – “We strive for it and we want things to go really well … but more important than excellence is authenticity and honesty. (Be intentional that) this is who we are; we are the people of God.”
- Be intentional about how you speak – Not everyone knows what the trinity is or where the communion rail is located.
Rev. Armstrong shared three questions with the clergy, saying that addressing them will make a church a more inviting and hospitable place for new people.
- How are you or can you open the closed loop at your church?
- What does intentionality in preparation look like for you?
- Does your church have its own language? If so, what is it and how can it become more accessible to others?
Resource
New ways of worship look old. In his book After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion, author Robert Wuthnow, a professor of sociology and director at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University, shares his extensive research on young adults and American religion.
Wuthnow writes that young adults “think church services should feel like church. They say the so-called seeker services that were geared toward people who disliked church are now passe,” Rev. Armstrong said.
“We can’t just pump up the organ. …," he said. "We have to be intentional in worship that incorporates the ancient and the modern, it means authenticity is more important than worship style.”
The 2015 Bishop's Retreat will be held Oct. 20-22 at the Woodcliff Hotel & Spa in Rochester. The guest speaker will be Bishop Robert Schnase, Bishop in Residence of the Missouri Area of The United Methodist Church.