Question Week: Do We Obsess Too Much About Details in Ministry?
Posted by C. Holland on May 07, 2009Continuing with Question Week:
Do we obsess too much about details in ministry?
Here’s what I’ve noticed: over the years, both in the States and now in the mission field, there seems to be an attitude of having to do things a certain way to attract people to church/Christ, or it won’t happen at all. For instance, an emphasis on only a certain style of worship, or the way that all churches are now encouraged to join Facebook and constantly Twitter. Or the importance placed upon incredibly high production values on Sunday, such as laser lights, full rock band and video production for the sermon. There is an underlying attitude that if your church gathering doesn’t tick all the right boxes, there’s no way that people will come to your church—or even come to Christ.
But the reality is that people do on both accounts, even when things don’t seem perfect to us. I remember some of the services in our ministry history that didn’t go right because something electronic broke down were often times the most poignant as there was a simplicity to them. I’m not arguing against excellence, planning or doing a half-baked job (for a great post on how we may be taking excellence too far, see this blog post from Collide Magazine). I just notice the attitude among ministries both in the States and in my mission field that if you can’t do a “big thing” in church service, then don’t do it at all. Yet in unglamourous industrial estates or in peeling, dilapidated stone churches there are people finding Christ for the first time.
Those who are originally from countries other than the States, is this a specific cultural thing coming from America or is it more pervasive in Christianity throughout all cultures?
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May 9th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
I think the problem is that Western consumerist culture has turned the Messiah into a product to be marketed. ¢hri$t ™ Don’t even get me started on the “prosperity” gospel!
So what happens when the ingenious Chinese, who copy, counterfeit & export everything from Gucci handbags to Cartier watches, get a hold of Christianity? Will they resell us a globalized, pirated version of Christianity?
May 9th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Hi Greg, one of the most painful things over here is to witness the “American” attitude in evangelicals, despite the fact that they are otherwise fiercely native and European. This is due to the majority of American missionaries that brought new church plants about a decade ago. Scarier still is the fact that they don’t see how American the interpretation is and why other secular nationals are turned off by the attitude.
I wish I could tell you the “prosperity” gospel wasn’t rampant over here, but it is. Now we’re dealing with relatively new Christians who bought into this and can’t understand why they’re losing a job in this economy despite “being good for God.” Hard lessons are ahead.