What Happened To Our Churches

How Motivations for Church Life Changed

Most of the New Testament, after the Gospels, was written about the church life of the first several generations of Christians. What prompted them to come together? Roman cities offered many hundreds of clubs and mystery cults to join, not unlike American cities today. Easiest to understand are the Jews already accustomed to synagogue life who accepted Jesus as the Messiah and moved on to a Christian house church (Acts 18: 7). They acted on conviction.

But Luke tells us there were many non-Jewish God-fearers, too. What motivated them? They probably had the same kind of mixed motives found among church-goers today. Most gathered out of conviction. Others were probably neighbors who liked the fellowship. A few knew they could get a meal. Others sought the protection of the influential leader and enjoyed the status that went with this patronage.

We do know that in the earliest years they regularly shared a meal, during which they usually also remembered the Lord’s last supper. We know they were expected to help each other out because Paul scolded the Corinthians for not taking care of the hungry in their midst.

I am offering these descriptions to illustrate motives within the categories of classic motivational psychology.

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How Spiritual Temperaments Influence Church Life

Did you know that you have a spiritual temperament? This means some activities help you feel closer to God than what you do otherwise. And people have different spiritual temperaments. So, if you want to be drawn closer to God spend more time on the spiritual pathways that work best for you.

These are insights from a new branch of psychology associated with the names Myers and Briggs. The Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory is the most-used testing instrument in business human resource management. One familiar distinction from their work is between introverts and extroverts.

I first ran into the insights on spiritual temperaments reading the book Who You Are Is How You Pray, by Charles Keating. He applied the Myers and Briggs Personality Types to members of religious orders to help candidates find the one that fits them best. He highlighted the view of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, who urged those seeking to be closer to God to try out different approaches and disciplines to find the one that is “sweet” for each. Don’t just imitate what someone else does. Had I been born Catholic, I probably would have become a Jesuit. One of the biggest blessings in my life is that I was born and raised in a vibrant Lutheran community.

Do you feel closer to God when you are hiking in nature? Or when you are caring for others? Or when you are alone thinking about God? Or when you are with other believers praising God with high emotions? Or when you are out crusading for peace and justice? Or when you are worshiping in a building with lots of symbols using special rituals? Or when you are pondering God’s word? These questions reflect types of spiritual temperaments recognized by Gary Thomas in his book Sacred Pathways: Discover Your Soul’s Pathway to God.

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Do You Want Your Church Leaders To Be Shepherds or Builders?

The title of Pastor has been popular among Protestants since the mid-18thcentury. For centuries before then the title was Father, as it still is among Roman Catholics. The Pietists, who were at their peak in the 18th century in Germany and Scandinavian countries, used pastor to reduce the distance between the clergy and the laity, as the social status of clergy grew ever loftier. “Pastor” in Latin means shepherd.

I am surprised that the pastor title is used so extensively even in American Evangelical circles. There are two alternatives. One is “Reverend” and the other is “Preacher.” Reverend is used frequently among mainline churches, as Rev. John Doe. I think Pastor is the loftier title, used only for those pastoring a congregation. Rev. applies to all ordained, whether or not they are pastoring.

I am proposing a new title for the leader of a suburban church. Pastor is very appropriate for a village church. Jesus self-identified as a shepherd. Paul, however, self-identified as a master builder, and the Greek is architect on(1 Corinthians 3:10). A good title for doing ministry Paul’s way would be Mb. (Master Builder) or Arch. (Architect). That kind of title is most appropriate for a new suburban strategy.

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Suburban Ministry Needs to Leave the Village Culture Behind

When I was Professor of Administrative Sciences, I taught the senior capstone course Strategic Management. I still read the Wall Street Journal and Business Week to stay up with how corporations are changing their strategies for keeping up with the fast-paced changes in technology. For example, it is amazing how much impact Amazon has had on its competitors. It is following a disruptive strategy that is forcing big changes in other retailers. Many retailing jobs are already gone, and more will disappear as stores close and chains retrench.

A similar reorganization is happening in churches.

Strategy comes from the Greek word strategos, the general in charge of an army. The general determines when and where to fight the battle and then positions his troops to the best advantage. That’s strategy. Tactics are how the various units then achieve their assignments.
It has been very frustrating for me over the last 30 years to observe how few pastors and church leaders have any inkling that so many traditional church bodies today are carrying out a strategy developed centuries earlier. Most churches that still value their European heritage are implementing a village strategy. We really need to move on to a suburban strategy for ministry among people who do not know each other and judge congregations by what they experience there.

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Motivated by the Spirit

At their first church convention, the earliest disciples made a policy decision. They announced it in a letter to the rest of the church with this phrase: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us . . . “

Have you ever seen or heard of a church today that announces a decision with that phrase, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us that . . .”? I haven’t. I suspect you haven’t either.

Why not?

I think traditional Protestant churches today no longer think of the Third Person of the Trinity as a vital part of our spiritual life. Yes, he was important in Bible times. But we don’t expect much from him today.

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Recognizing When It Is the Holy Spirit

The first of the four Great Awakenings in American history happened in the 1730s and 40s. Arguably America’s greatest theologian, Jonathan Edwards, was involved but grew skeptical as the Awakening worked its way out.

That movement brought great controversy. One side emphasized religious emotions as the essence; feeling the love of God was most important. The other side taught that the heart of true religion is right thinking; emotions are fickle and often lead astray.

Edwards was decidedly Word oriented. In his writing, he argued against a shallow, human-oriented view of spirituality. He taught to look for these reliable signs of the Spirit’s indwelling:

– A new spiritual sense reflected in love of God that does not come from self-interest
– A new kind of convicted knowing
– A genuine humility
– A hunger for God and a Christ-like Spirit
– Christian practice

Flipping channels, many believers occasionally come across high-intensity healing services and revivals. Most are usually turned off, sensing phoniness, and they quickly move on. Next time dwell a little longer and apply Edward’s reliable signs to identify whether the Spirit is really at work. Before judging, beware that those of us from Northern European descent are easily turned off by high emotions. But that is what many others are used to and seek.

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Discipled by the Spirit

The church I serve has the purpose statement “To Make and Grow Disciples.” We leaders work hard at bringing about that result. We all agree we have a long way to go.

When that statement was finalized, I quibbled with the wording. Making and growing disciples is the work of the Holy Spirit, who calls, enlightens, sanctifies and gathers all believers together in the Christian church. There is no disagreement with this classical statement of the role of the Third Person of the Trinity. But organizational purpose statements are supposed to be pithy and short. Do we really have to add the complication of the Spirit’s role in discipleship and church life? Yes, I think, for several reasons.

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Waiting on the Spirit

When Jesus ascended he told his disciples to “wait for the power from on high.” The Spirit came in a dramatic way 50 days later at Pentecost.

Does the Spirit come today? Many traditional and evangelical churches don’t act like it, beyond perhaps an annual Pentecost church birthday party. That was then. How does he come now? Other essays discuss how to recognize the Spirit’s subtle movements. How can we wait upon his blessings today?

Think like Zacchaeus. He’s the short guy who climbed a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus coming. Jesus then saw him and shared dinner fellowship with him. Jesus comes to us now through the Spirit he and his Father send. Like climbing a tree, we can deliberately put ourselves in the Spirit’s workplace.

What will you wait for the Spirit to do in your life?

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How The Spirit Works in Changing Cultures

In the fourth century the Christian church took a turn that still handicaps traditional churches today. The Roman emperor made Christianity the official religion of the Empire. Most consider this a good development. Institutional Christianity then took on explosive growth.

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Ten Theses About the Full Gospel

The most-read blog this past half year (5,198 readers) was Re-Discover the Forgotten Gospel. So, what is the full Gospel? This is a serious very practical question for Protestants today. Here is a very serious biblical answer, set forth in serious doctrinal format of ten theses to be defended. But first this summary:

To preach only salvation for eternity is to present only half the biblical Gospel. The rest is God’s grace in sending the Spirit to make our lives better now with what the Spirit produces, his Spiritual fruit of changed emotions in our lives. By grace, we are saved eternally and by grace, we can live better now.

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Fresh Perspective on Church Decline

The steep decline that so many mainline churches are experiencing today was the subject of my book I published earlier this year, What Happened to our Churches, where I examined the rapid decline that so many mainline churches are faced with today.

This now well-recognized withering is especially widespread among mainline Lutheran, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Reformed churches. We are church bodies that value our Reformation heritage and share the background of being state-sponsored churches back in Europe. This heritage places us at a great disadvantage in the current American culture.

I just published my next book, Encourage Adventures in Step with the Spirit which focuses on our need to embrace new ministry practices. I advocate that the most basic change is to give more attention to the work of the Holy Spirit in our personal and church lives. What that looks like and how to do so is the emphasis in this second set of blogs.