One more post bouncing off current trends in American evangelicalism.
Certainly, all religious movements have their…tendencies. Some of you might remember a post I wrote on the old blog about how everything, in the end will go haywire, so the task of institutions is to try to minimize that possibility, but recognizing its inevitability and trying to insure that the haywireness doesn’t take us completely off the reservation.
I believe the original post was liturgical related, and what I was working through was the haywireness that was the consequences of an overly-legalistic view of liturgy and one that is the consequence of a completely non-legalistic view. In short, which kind of “abuse” is more likely to, despite its wrong-headedness, have a fighting chance to “contain” the original truth?
So, with that in mind, I take a look at some things I’ve run across lately.
What’s the gospel way to feel sexy?
Dawn Eden had a post on this – a sermon series in a megachurch in Arizona. The set-up featured a big double bed on the stage behind the preacher and the posters advertising the series featured two bare feet entwined on a bed.

An Arizona megachurch is promoting a series of Sunday worship services with the theme “Bringing Sexy Back.”Each of the services at Cornerstone Christian Fellowship Church in Chandler, Ariz., features a lecture on a topic such as “Greatest Sex Ever.” Ads for the series feature two sets of bare feet sticking out under sheets. Center stage on the pulpit during the worship services is a giant, king-size bed.The series was inspired by one at an Indiana church that was advertised via the Web site mylamesexlife.com. Cornerstone’s version likewise has its own Web site, howsexyami.com.On the Web site, Pastor Linn Winters may be seen introducing the “Greatest Sex Ever” service by assuring churchgoers that, even though it may seem strange to see a king-size bed on the pulpit, “God is not freaked out” by sex.
 

A current sermon series from the Connection Church in Texas:
 
 Also in Arizona, from the website of “The Cool Church” – Tucson Community:

Even the way that we do church is different than what most people expect: We don’t “pass the plate”, single out new people or get all dressed up. All of our music is original, written by myself and Pastor Toby, with over 50 songs and 4 CDs completed. Our talented band plays at all 4 of our weekend services, and when you add our light show and projection screens to the mix, they have a very cool concert feel about them. My teaching is all memorized and practical to your life, using props, movie clips and lots of laughs to communicate God’s truth.

From The Journey in the Bay Area – went to once-a-month services during the summer.

Northeast Christian Church in Louisville cancelled Sunday services on July 1 in favor of a showing of Evan Almighty. This large church runs sermon (or “message”) series using pop culture as hooks – very common, and so common and popular that you can buy them as packages from places like this.

The Movie Pastor, of a church in Decatur, AL, made a video for a competition run by a church leadership conference. He won. The video invites folks to come to the conference by mimicking male enhancement ads.

Last week, a video made by a megachurch in Aurora, IL was making the rounds – an orientation to baptism, that culminated in some jokey, don’t hold me down so long stuff, with the closing shot involving one of the guys playing with some rubber ducks in the baptismal pool. That video’s been removed from YouTube by the creators, so slammed they were, I guess, by blog comments from fellow evangelicals who were appalled. So good for that – in fact, every bit of what I’ve shared in this post is the object of great concern and even contempt by elements within evangelicalism who see the quest for relevance, coolness and such as dangerous as the Prosperity Gospel and the Church Growth Movement.

Catholics look at all this, look at the size of these churches, look at our own who have been drawn to them, and say, “Well, how can that be bad? Look at the people being served? 23,000 a week listening to Joel! All those ministries!” The fact is, even as we speak, questions are being raised from within American Protestantism on the true, long-lasting effectiveness of every bit of that, on whether it all truly and deeply communicates faith.  The Emergent movement is a reaction to just that, but seems caught up in its own web of cool and relevant controversies as indicated in this outraged blog post on some videos contrasting “religious” and “authentic.”  The videos, found here, mimic the Apple v. PC ads and are produced by Living Spring Fellowship in California. 

Oh, and then there’s Paula:

Nice!
Now, there’s a huge mess for you. A church (Without Walls in Tampa) that started off a few years back, all about the outreach, all about the relevant, boundary-breaking ministry, and ends up being all about the pastors’ big homes, private jet, Trump Tower condo and church’s unpaid bills. And a bit of crazy ego there. Obviously.
Now look. This is not about claiming that Catholicism has none of this. OF COURSE it does! We’ve got all kinds of crap and craziness, ranging from the criminal to the exploitive to the outre. We’ve got bishops giving depositions and testimony – not the religious kind – all over the place. We’ve got devotions that veer verrrrry close to idolatry, if not crash right into it.  We forget who is Lord, too. We’re the church of the apostles, remember?
No, this post is about pastoral ministry and the Evangelical Envy among Catholics, and the temptation to imitate what seems like success – the hooking into trends, the themes, the coolness, the relevance.
Because, you know, in the land of Parish Festivals and Casino Nights…do I really have room to sniff at Poker, Fish and Chips?
Nah. I’m thinking…I don’t.
Here’s what I’m saying. Obviously, Catholic parish life is wanting in many places. Frankly, this was part of the motivation behind John Paul II’s strong support of the “New Movements.” Parish life in Europe is largely dead in many places, and New Movements were the places where the energy and renewal and nourishment were coming from.  We have things we can learn from contemporary evangelicalism, to be sure. But we have to be very, very careful as well, and look at the whole picture, not just the numbers. We have to look at the enchantment with the new, the cool and relevant. It may attract people, but for what? To what? We have to look at how the “creativity” at the heart of so much of this is a frantic attempt to compensate for what these bodies do not have – a sacramental life in which Jesus is really present in a unique way, to whom people come, not for an idea, but for an encounter with their Lord. We have to look, as I mentioned many are looking at within evangelicalism itself, on the long-term impact. It may bring them in, but…for what? In the long term, what? We have to look at the consumer, marketplace mentality that is at the heart of so much of this. We have to look frankly at where it all leads – the laudable desire to reach out seems to almost inevitably, in these churches without any ties to two thousand years of Tradition, dependent on their own creativity, to lead to cultural capitulation and banality.
Which we, in the Catholic Church, do know a little about. The more we can recognize that within ourselves and resist the temptation to dive into even more cultural capitulation, banality and marketing…the better.
Not to speak of (and this is the most serious problem), the danger of an embrace of only a portion of Christian teaching, the portion the pastor and his ministry team are interested in, the portion that lends itself to relevance, the portions that were approved by human beings in the past or the present.
Most importantly, I think, we have too examine, closely, what an enchantment with market-driven, creative-obsessed tactics of evangelism and church growth miss. What they tempt us to ignore within the ancient, diverse Body of Christ called the Church.  There’s a lot there. Have we forgotten?
But my last thought plays on my post in defense of apologetics from last week. To be blunt, what we have in Catholicism, without cuteness or marketing or emotional manipulation is the Truth. It rankles some, but I believe it. If I didn’t believe it, why the heck would I bother with any of this? Why the heck would I bother with getting up in the morning and going to Mass? I really do believe that the answers to all of the questions, all of the needs being raised and highlighted in all of these ministries – I believe the answers are found in Catholicism, because it is the Church of Jesus Christ. This Church is broken because of division, and this Church needs the mission-focus of those drawn to evangelicalism, the liturgical seriousness of those drawn to Anglicanism, the energy of those drawn to Pentecostalism – but I also believe all of that is already here, within, and that what being a Catholic committed to evangelism – the evangelical Catholic – is about vigorously spreading the word to all the world – and not just the unchurched – that if you are looking for Jesus Christ and the fullness of faith in him, the most logical place to look is in his Church.
And the rest is a mixture of grace, trust in that Presence, and the commitment of His poor servants to do just that – to serve the truth, boldly.
I’m going to end this typically scattered post (which at least has the value of getting all of this stuff out of my head, clearing it) by quoting from a blogpost which performs the helpful service of unintentionally making the points I’m making both about these movements within evangelicalism and the real need and responsibility for Catholicism to embrace its identity in Christ and take Him to those who need him. The blogger is the pastor of one of these innovative type bodies that meets, as it happens, in my old home of Lakeland, Florida. As far as I can see, he has no formal theological training, but is a pastor-comedian nonetheless.  Here’s the post:

This past month has been pretty rough for church planters around here.  A couple of churches that started around the same time we did closed their doors this month.  A few that started after we did also called it quits.  It’s pretty depressing….a bunch of fall out and sheep mess to clean up.  Some of them closed because of flawed leadership…some because of flawed strategies…some closed because of God knows what.  It has really made me take a long, hard look at Compass Point.  After all this time…with the odds against us…we are still here.  The realization is…it is simply because God has His hand in all of this.  That in and of itself is scary.  I spend everyday…all day…scared to death I’m going to do something stupid that would cause God to take His hand off of us!

I’m heading to a bar-b-que today with a group of folks from a church plant that just had their pastor quit on them.  After a couple of years of struggling as a church plant…he just up and quit…no transition…no leadership tranfer…no…nothing.  I had lunch with some of their young people yesterday.  You can see it in their eyes…that hunger to do great things for the Kingdom of God.  They are like a bunch of trained warriors with no war to fight…because there is no one to lead them into battle. So much talent…so much potential…they just a need a vision to follow.  At the same time…they are not ready to let go of the vision that just walked out of the door.  It is going to be a difficult day…

And let the people say – Amen.