Last Sunday I dropped in on a church I like to visit occasionally. It's been nearly a year since visiting and a new pastor has come on board. So I filled out a visitor card. In part I wanted to let them know I visited and in part I was curious to see what their follow-up process was. Thankfully, they did follow-up with a letter that came today. But there's something strange about the letter and thought it was worth sharing here. It's another one of those things that highlights how weird church can be.
After a brief opening paragraph thanking me for visiting and making the church part of my weekend plans the very next paragraph was this...
"In an age and culture when many church services seem to lose their focus on Jesus Christ, we are grateful for the opportunity to gather each week and receive the gifts our Lord has for us all in His Word and Sacraments. At [church name] we are proud of our heritage and unashamed of our confession, and so we make use of a historical form of worship that invites meaningful participation from the congregation and unites Christians of all generations and cultures. Most importantly, the service focuses all that we do and say on Jesus Christ and Him crucified for our sins."
Okay, let that soak in for a minute. Remember, this is a letter sent as first contact from a church to a visitor...very possibly a first time visitor. Here's my question, and it's one of several. If you had a chance, maybe just one chance, to introduce your church in a winsome and invitational way to a visitor would you, after dispensing with pleasantries, slam other churches right out of the gate? Forget churches. If you had a new customer visit your store would you start by telling them how other stores suck? If you had someone visit your home would you tell them how the other neighbors don't get how to be truly neighborly? It makes no sense to me. It puts me in a position to want to defend other churches.
Let's take the opening salvo. 'In an age and culture when many church services seem to lose their focus on Jesus Christ...' The letter is from the pastor. If you're the pastor of a church aren't you pretty much committed every Sunday morning? And if you're busy leading worship at your church every Sunday how do you know that many church services seem to lose their focus on Jesus Christ? Are you watching those churches online? Maybe. If you're committed to your worship style and presentation of the Gospel why would you bother watching other churches online? Unless you're looking to pick a fight. Why would you look to pick a fight with other Christian churches? See what I mean? That first sentence sends me off on a rabbit trail and now I really couldn't care less about the church I visited and I'm becoming convinced this church is unsure of itself. Why else would you present a defense of yourself in a welcome letter?
The next line that really catches me is, '...we are proud of our heritage and unashamed of our confession, so we make use of a historical form of worship...' I guess I assume that when a church and a pastor puts all their time and effort into presenting a worship service each week they are content with what they present. By making a point of saying you're proud of your heritage and unashamed of your confession makes me think, 'thou dost protest too much'. What do you really have to be ashamed of? What about your heritage do you find embarrassing enough to cause you to announce how proud you are?
This is truly the most inept, clumsy and ridiculous way to welcome a visitor. Let me rewrite the paragraph the way it really reads...
"Other Christian churches suck and really don't have anything to do with Jesus. We're really grateful we got it right and don't suck. We know people don't like old liturgical worship formats because churches using these are mostly shrinking, aging and dying but we're going to stick it out because someday people will come back around to our way of doing things...we hope. What we do is really, really meaningful, we promise. Even if it doesn't seem meaningful to you. Finally, since we say it's all about Jesus it's okay to be old, boring and irrelevant and hope you're convinced."
Now, even if you believe all that, would it be the first foot you put forward to a newcomer? I guess if you wanted to thin out the numbers that might return for a second visit, this would be the way to go. Let's put it right out front that we're an old church that clings to old liturgical formats, will never use contemporary resources, and will stay culturally irrelevant. If that appeals to you, please come learn more and join us.
I'm not saying this church should change it's worship style or anything else. I'm saying let your pride shine in what you do and let your words be welcoming. Be winsome and gracious. Talk about all you do that's driven by your passion for Jesus and commitment to whatever you're committed to. That is if you're really looking to reach the unreached. But I'm not sure this church is interested in that. The reason I say that will be more fully explained in another post.
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