Rapid response

We live in a world of immediacy. This is nothing new. The pace of our culture has been accelerating steadily for years. This isn't right or wrong, it's just true. We are finding faster and faster ways to generate information, resources, products and more. The twenty-four hour news cycle has revolutionized how our government operates and we elect our president based primarily on 30 second sound bites. We interact with everything from television shows (American Idol) to outdoor deck suppliers (I designed my own deck on trex.com). At the same time, most church services are still one to two hours long with a substantial chunk of that time consumed by one person standing in front of everyone else telling them about God and how God wants them to live while they sit passively in their seats. These same church leaders bristle when someone suggests they might not be connecting to the culture in a relevant way.

Jesus Christ is alive, vibrant and engaged in the human experience. That's right...is...not was. As a Christ follower I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and is alive, active, energetic and extremely relevant to every life on the planet. Here's a little story that illustrates why the church bearing his name doesn't always communicate that message very well. It relates to a specific denomination but applies universally.

The Missouri Synod Lutheran Church has joyfully announced the release of their new hymnal, the Lutheran Service Book (already dubbed LSB by Lutherans who have an aversion to using whole words lest someone understand what they're talking about). Work on this awesome new worship resource started with a mandate from the churches gathered in convention in 1998. That's right, do the math. Eight years...eight...to assemble a worship resource for churches. I'm guessing that much more than half the book is made up of hymns (songs) that have been in Lutheran hymnals since those songs were written 75 to 500 years ago. Do you remember what you were doing in 1998? Does a church that takes eight years to put together one book of songs and liturgies have any hope of connecting with your everyday life? Even more amazing to me is that there are some Lutheran churches that will not adopt this book because they've finally gotten used to the last new hymnal...the one that came out in 1981 (the Lutheran Book of Worship - LBW). Then, of course, there are those congregations that found even that switch too traumatic and continue to keep the 1947 hymnal (The Lutheran Hymnal - TLH) in their pews for weekly use.

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not against hymnals or liturgies or denominations that publish worship resources to assist churches. (If you've read my blog regularly, you know I have a hard time with the way church is done in general.) I do want to know how a denominational church body in this day and age, serving in this culture, can take eight years to put a book together and ever hope to be seen as relevant. This mainline Christian denomination continues its decades long decline in membership. Operating funds are also declining as people seem to be voting with their feet and their wallets. This isn't about Lutherans. It's a cautionary tale to any church that is wondering why people might be losing interest in them. You may have the most awesome theology, the most accurate understanding of God, the best grasp of scripture and the most doctrinally correct song lyrics but if your method of delivery doesn't connect it just doesn't matter. We must learn to move at the pace of the culture or we will be left behind. The Body of Christ will always be relevant, but if the church keeps going the way it is, expect to see increasingly empty buildings littering the American landscape.