We spend a lot of time in ELCA congregations thinking about declining numbers and the future of this church. We experiment with music as we hope to attract more people. We analyze our neighborhoods as we think about services we might offer.
We try to avoid thinking about all the ways we’ve turned the good news into grim news.
Unchurched people tend to see a church-offered spiritual path as being rule bound. They think about everything they’ll have to give up if they start coming to church.
The lighter side
What would happen if we took a more lighthearted approach to our religion, to worship, to our relationship with God?
I’ve been spending time with my 5-year-old nephew lately, and it’s made me think about play and creativity. It’s led me to wonder about how we could (re)capture some of that spirit.
I watch my nephew draw, make costumes and create plays and puppet shows. I think about the earliest Genesis story, the one that comes before the more familiar Adam and Eve creation story.
I love the vision of God as preschooler, God making all sorts of creations. God never says, “This bird doesn’t look like a macaw is supposed to look. I’m going to destroy it. I can never make those parrots like I want them to be. I’m so worthless.”
No, God, like my nephew, finishes every creation and says, “This is good. This is very good.”
Somewhere along the way, many churches have lost this view of God. We present God as a presence who judges and finds us wanting. We must ever try, try again to please God. We fail again, and we try again, and it’s all a doomed process.
And we wonder why people turn away from the message.
How might we adopt a more lighthearted approach to spirituality, both as individuals and as a church?
Shout to the Lord
For the past several decades, I’ve followed the example of the children of my mentor in undergraduate school. While driving along, her husband was startled by the children in the back shouting, “Great show, God!” The sunset was particularly beautiful that night.
Ever since my mentor told me that story, I try to remember to say, “Great show, God!” I’m a creative person, and I know firsthand that having people appreciate a creation is a great feeling. We’re surrounded by so many of God’s intriguing creations — why not show appreciation?
How could we do this in our congregations? We could add prayers of gratitude and appreciation to our corporate prayers. We tend to spend prayer time asking for help (for the sick, for those facing big decisions, for our leaders), but we can spare a petition or two for expressing our wonder and awe.
Perhaps we could start a bulletin board devoted to photos of the wonders of creation, a place for people to share and to say, “Great show, God!”
Hands-on inspiration
We could engage in the creative process ourselves. When I teach literature classes, I encourage students to try their hand at writing the kinds of literature we’re studying. It’s a process that inspires more appreciation than the traditional assignment of writing an analysis of the literature we’re reading.
We should think back to what we enjoyed as children. Even if we don’t think we can enjoy that creative activity as adults, we might be surprised.
Last summer, I colored with my nephew with old fashioned Crayons. I had forgotten the wide variety of colors available to me.
As an older artist, I was pleased to see how blendable those Crayons can be. I even enjoyed coloring pages out of coloring books — how nice, not to have to create the picture, but just to fill it with color.
Most art supplies come in both expensive and cheap varieties. What appeals to you? Have fun. Buy an inexpensive or disposable camera and shoot some pictures. Buy some paint, pastels, Crayons or colored pens and draw. Hammer wood pieces together into interesting shapes. Buy some modeling clay and squeeze it into something intriguing.
Creative worship
How might we incorporate creative processes into our worship services? You might protest that your congregation already does, but what I’ve seen is that a few people present a creative piece and most of the congregation serves as audience (to the choir, to the liturgical dancers, to the people who put together the service). What would happen if we passed out art supplies, and instead of a sermon, we encouraged people to respond creatively to the Gospel?
You might protest that the work of this church is to proclaim the good news of our redemption. I would offer that one of the ways the world needs to hear this message is through reclaiming the idea that creation can be redeemed, that creation is not doomed.
The world also needs us to reclaim our own creativity and to lead others to embrace their creative impulses. In this way, we might avert crises of all sorts. Or maybe we simply want to be more lighthearted as we work our way back to our sense of childhood wonder.
I’ve offered a few ideas here. I’d be interested in hearing your ideas.
Kristin Berkey-Abbott is a lifelong Lutheran, a college teacher and department head. She has taught a variety of English and creative writing classes for the last 20 years.
We present God as a presence who judges and finds us wanting. We must ever try, try again to please God. We fail again, and we try again, and it’s all a doomed process.
Sadly, I think this is how my sister now sees God, and the church, and why she no longer has a church community she calls home. And I think this may have a lot to do with how worship starts out: with the confession of sins. We confess that we are in bondage to sin, and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart, we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves....
Of course we go from there to asking forgiveness and mercy, but I think my sister and many non-church goers are stuck on those first words and aren't hearing the rest. It's a heavy way to start. It's not a celebration.
Your article has a lot of good ideas (I especially like the bulletin board idea). Thanks for the inspiration!
Ms. Berkey-Abbott begins: "We spend a lot of time in ELCA congregations thinking about declining numbers and the future of this church." I think Andy could very well have identified at least part of the problem: "We confess that we are in bondage to sin, and cannot free ourselves." This is most certainly true, and I am not trying to "spin" it, but couldn't our theologians take a fresh look at the emphasis, perspective and facets of the Reformers' dim view of human nature?
Also, why does everyone in the ELCA always refer to themselves as "this church"? What then, pray tell, is "that church"? Are Lutherans always subconsciously comparing themselves to their origins, the Catholic Church?
This post makes me think of a clip I saw a while back about "Transforming your congregation": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeATy06jST8
Peter, this time I will have to agree with you. I just googled Willow Creek. (I grew up on the North Shore, but I had never heard of it.) I would have to look up the Bible passage, but something about false prophets comes to my mind. Also, I just don't think cute-sy gimmicks will truly reach people. Not grown-ups, anyway.
I do not mean to be critical of Ms. Berkey-Abbott's cheerful point of view about "Creative worship," but as we all know, people these days are bombarded by all sorts of things... and the truth is, I believe, people want to go to a church where they can make CONTACT with God.
Go back, way back through the archives of The Lutheran and you will find an artilce on the "new" Country Line Dancing Liturgy. I guess that died with the advent of whatever the next big fad was. Why does the classic Western Rite survive despite all the innovations that claim they will bury it? Maybe it's because the traditional liturgy is the best vehicle we have for the proclamation of the Word and the administration of the sacrament. Which is not to say it's the only vehicle. Which is not to say it can't be varied a bit for local custom or contemporary need. But to say that when all these new-fangled ideas fail, as they all eventually do, we go back to the "tried and true" and find it has helped sustain Christianity for 2,000 years.
I think there are less people in church because there are less religious people. I just read an article on a 1958 book called "The Naked Communist". In the book the author has a list of 45 communist goals that seem to be very prophetic about the condition of American culture today. Below are 8 goals taken from the list.
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, and healthy.
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use "united force" to solve economic, political or social problems
There are definitely organized forces afoot that want God abolished in our culture; and this doesn't help church membership.
Here are the actual 2011 statistics. (Source: The Christian Post, 2/15/11)
The largest 25 Churches (ranked by membership):
1. The Catholic Church, 68,503,456 members, up .57 percent.
2. Southern Baptist Convention, 16,160,088 members, down.42 percent.
3. The United Methodist Church, 7,774,931 members, down1.01 percent.
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6,058,907 members, up 1.42 percent.
5. The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members, no membership updates reported.
6. National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc, 5,000,000 members, no membership updates reported.
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,542,868 members, down1.96 percent.
8. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., 3,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.
9. Assemblies of God, 2,914,669 members, up .52 percent.
10. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 2,770,730 members, down 2.61 percent.
11. African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.
12. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, 2,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.
13. The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS), 2,312,111 members, down 1.08 percent.
14. The Episcopal Church, 2,006,343 members, down 2.48 percent.
15. Churches of Christ, 1,639,495 members, no membership updates reported.
16. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 1,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.
17. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., 1,500,000 members, no membership updates reported.
18. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1,400,000 members, no membership updates reported.
19. American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., 1,310,505 members, down 1.55 percent.
20. Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1,162,686 members, up 4.37 percent.
21. United Church of Christ, 1,080,199 members, down 2.83 percent.
22. Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), 1,076,254 members, up .38 percent.
23. Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, 1,071,616 members, no membership updates reported.
24. Seventh-Day Adventist Church, 1,043,606 members, up 4.31 percent.
25. Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., 1,010,000 members, down 59.60 percent (due in part to a new methodology of counting members).