Mainline churches traditionally emphasize a transcendent spiritual experience, meaning above and beyond the ordinary. They meet in settings very different from weekday environments. Worship happens in special buildings (sanctuaries with stained glass windows) and in special clothing (gowns and Sunday-best) with organ music now associated only with churches. Sunday is meant to be a weekly uplifting experience. Transcendent worship is “formal.” Those are highly structured triggers.
Younger Christians today look for immanent experiences closely related to their normal daily life. They respond to different triggers. They are comfortable meeting in buildings that have other uses. In our case we meet for contemporary worship in a large gym with basketball hoops that are folded up out of the way for worship. Many congregations meet in sections of a mall. Clothing is casual, including that of the leader. Music is with guitars and drums, much like what they hear in popular contemporary music. “Informal” is a very appropriate summary of the immanent style.
Triggers of traditional religious experiences are easier to identify. For someone raised with the symbols in a traditional Lutheran, Presbyterian or Baptist church sanctuary, participation in a service may bring back positive feelings, even if those are not articulated well. These could be the relaxing sense of welcome home, or the refreshing enthusiasm singing a well-loved familiar hymn, or feeling safe and secure going through familiar relaxing routines, an easing of the yoke of everyday stresses. For them spending special time there with God is good.
Insert here your personal story of positive encounters with traditional triggers for worship. I have in mind a Catholic neighbor woman with seven children who went to Mass every morning for the strength to get through the day.
Traditional transcendent triggers do not work for everyone. For many, those cues from childhood bring negative associations of boredom or oppressive guilt. They don’t work either for someone who has never been in a sanctuary. There are many young adults out there whose only exposure to a sanctuary is perhaps their involvement in a wedding, now just one of many special settings for the nuptials.
Roman Catholic theologian John Shea observes that Church and Tradition enshrined a set of triggers. The problem is they are being questioned today. “The presence that people used to find in the dark back of Gothic churches they now claim to find in the bright light of the secular world.”
He describes how this second, today more-traveled path to having religious experiences is found in the multiple life situations in which people find themselves—of sickness and vitality, of questing for truth and struggling for justice, of loving and reconciling.
Transcendent church and Immanent church are two different cultures. Most community churches start from the beginning with Immanent church. “Non-denominational” is their code word to communicate this. The roots of mainline churches are in the Transcendent (old-fashioned) culture.
These two approaches to church life often conflict in a congregation that has both styles, even when the sanctuary service continues as it was. Some of our older members still call the gym service with a praise band a “hootenanny.” These are two different church cultures. It took fifteen years, including a change of staff, for our church to get really good at contemporary. It’s like learning a new language, because it is indeed a new and different culture.
Transitioning from an old to a new church culture inevitably raises the problem that happens with second and third generations. The old triggers don’t work for them as much anymore. They may have found the old culture boring and may have no positive associations with it or maybe even negative associations they are trying to escape. When they feel the need to tend to their relationship with God, they naturally look for and gravitate to the kinds of worship young adults their age from a similar social culture are experiencing.
What is the future for formal traditional worship? Not good. Face it. That old culture is dying. A few young adults are attracted on rebound from their experiences in Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Some of those are in traditional seminaries, resisting any change to what they have learned to value. What is the future for those seminaries? Not good.
The notion that a spiritual transcendent church is in competition with spiritual immanent church is interesting.
Question: if a spiritual transcendent church culture that struggles to accommodate [or be transformed by] the demand of a certain generation’s preference/demand for spiritual immanent culture has no future,
then what is to say that a the future generation (100 years from now) entrenched in a spiritual immanent church culture struggling to accommodate[or be transformed by] the demand of their next generation’s preference/demand for a spiritual transcendent church culture have any brighter future?
Perhaps, the “traditional” church thought it was spiritual transcendent but ignored the immanent reality in relationship to the Gospel. Now its unfaithfulness is being exposed. It is plausible that a mainline church culture calcified through its polity, doctrine and worship because it became enslaved to money and self-serving power.
If church culture truly lived the promises of God, given in Holy Baptism revealed in scripture, made known through the Holy Spirit – there is still a reason for hope. The Old Testament is full of periods of unfaithfulness, repentance, renewal journeys for the people of the promise. What rebellion in sin hasn’t God already endured, defeated and transformed into new life?
If church culture is faithfully transformed across generations – does spiritual transcendence no longer have a place in the life of faith?
Good question. I know my church body is figuring that twenty years from now after the elderly pass on, there will be a renewed interest in traditional Lutheran culture. That is hard for me to imagine. Precedent is not a guide here. But of course the Spirit blows where he will. I certainly pray there will be a new movement of the Spirit in a fresh spiritual Awakening in our nation, like the three previous one. But that is a hope, not a prediction.
I would not be so hard on previous generations of mainline Christians. They were doing what made sense decades ago. Now of course finances are a high concern. So like many organizations, leaders are interested in what will allow them to continue their present culture.
“Periods of unfaithfulness, repentance, renewal journeys”. Such a time of repentance is the proper step for mainline churches. But until the Spirit moves powerfully that is not going to happen. The German culture of my church did annually celebrate a Sunday of Repentance in the Fall. You have given me the idea for a future blog.
Thanks.
Appreciate you, your insight illuminated more via this exchange.
Re: not being too hard on previous generations – that was not my intention. My intention is to learn from this history. Since the first Pentecost – the challenge of sin remains both individually and within the community of the baptized.
The fullness of the Gospel, rooted in the way of the cross revealed in communion of the Holy Spirit can not, nor will be defeated by death. Christian hope is placed in the promises of the Living Lord God. The Gospel faithfully proclaimed individually and in communion together that glorifies the Triune God is salvation faith that is longsuffering too. Come Holy Spirit – kindle in us the fire of love.
Again, thank you.
I was raised in the LCMS. I can’t remember the sense of “transcendence” in worship. What I observed as I became older is people receiving emotional (and spiritual) comfort. The worship service was a constant. The hymns and liturgy connect with memories in the brain, sparking emotional connection. The stain glass provokes the imagination of the reality of Jesus. All of that is part of the “package” that helps faith to grow. But I don’t think I thought about it as “transcendent”.
Even though I am in a contemporary format now (for 15 years) I still have some of that experience when I worship in a traditional environment. But even now, it’s not “transcendent” to me as much as it ties back to memories growing up and some of the great hymns inspire my faith.
I would also state that while contemporary worship is “immanent”, it can also be “transcendent”. But it isn’t by itself. Contemporary worship can also become rote and dull to the spiritual senses.
The transcendent worship experience isn’t created by us, but by the Holy Spirit, and that can happen anywhere you worship. Lutherans don’t really talk about being “in the presence of the Lord”. They talk about “the Lord being present” in the Word and Sacraments. But those are two different realities being discussed. One is that God is always present, the other is that I am actually experiencing His presence. The Word of God is the Word of God, but when the Word of God speaks to me personally, (ramah), transcendence happens!
Of course, we can (and do) mess up both of those concepts, but in our secular world, I believe we need both of those beautiful truths. God is present in His Word and sacraments, but it is also critically important to experience God’s presence, at least from time to time. We talk about being created in the image of God, having the Holy Spirit join with our Spirit. What happens when a person lives for decades and never experiences the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit? I won’t answer that, but I’ll let that be a question to linger. I think it’s an important one.
As far as the future of worship goes, if we don’t help people grow as disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit, there won’t be as much worship going on in the USA, nor in our mainline churches. The next generation will fall off. The church will always be there, but the remnant will be smaller. God will be present in HIs Word and Sacraments, but how many people will be there to receive it?
The Good News is that Jesus is still at the right hand of God. He knows our failings, and by HIs grace, we get the privilege to carry out His work of loving people and sharing grace and truth with them. Onward Christian soldiers!
There is a segment among young adults that are open to “traditional” or liturgical worship. Where they differ from their grandparents is that they want to know the “why” of liturgical worship. (Grandparents just know this is just the way we do things-I don’t know why-it is just the way it is!)
Therefore I do not forecast a demise of traditional or liturgical worship.
But if you mean “traditional worship” done week after week with little or no variety, robotic readers and expressionless clergy and done at traditional times then yes, traditional worship might well be in trouble. But done vibrantly, with variety (Be Thou My Vision led by guitar is a big hit on college campuses!) and at times suitable for young adults and not set in stone since the late 1800’s by Midwest Board of Elders who are all farmer–I think such a service will survive and maybe even thrive if young people forsake contemporary which is often narcissistic.
Finally much contemporary or non traditional worship is the result of the desires of baby boomers. I expect the generations since will distance themselves from the cravings of boomers. This might mean a forsaking of contemporary among them.
I speak as one who grew up only with contemporary but came to appreciate traditional. My hear is still contemporary though.
This is a great analysis… for selling widgets or determining which fads will be popular this Christmas season.
But if you actually believe in the supernatural, this is about the worst possible analysis that I could imagine.
What works is the Word of God.
Do people drenched in 24-7 entertainment – car crashes, naked girls, and Hollywood special effects – find it boring? Sure. But that is how God chooses you work. The voice of God is not in the bombast of the earthquake or the blazing fire, but in the ‘still small voice,’ the ‘soft whisper’ of the Transcendent Almighty God who deigns to be Immanent at the manger, the cross, and in the wafers and the wine that are His true body and blood by virtue of a miracle.
And this is why Lutherans are committed to our unchanging Symbols, that include the following:
“In our churches Mass is celebrated every Sunday and on other festivals when the sacrament is offered to those who wish for it after they have been examined and absolved. We keep traditional liturgical forms, such as the order of the lessons, prayers, vestments, etc.”
~ Apology 24:1
That is how God chooses to work. We can either do things His way, or we can become just another source of tawdry entertainment in a strip mall.
I worry for our church and our own souls if we allow tradition to stand in the way of the inspired Word (and example!) of God (see Martin Luther, 1517). If we do not meet people where they are in life (as Jesus did!) and communicate with them in ways that they understand (as Jesus did!), then we are failing in our responsibility to actually share the Good News with all people and all nations.
This conversation around transcendent and immanent, and around traditional and contemporary, imply that the choice of style and approach is binary. Shame on us if we fall into that evil trap! BOTH (and other) approaches are required if we are to reach all of the lost for Jesus. Believing otherwise creates what I believe is a sinful stumbling block for the Gospel and potentially condemns the souls of those who might not otherwise learn of the eternal love of Christ to spend that eternity apart from Him!
Each of us will be held to account at the judgment throne. While we do not earn our way into heaven — Jesus through His death and victorious resurrection has already accomplished that for us! — will we be able to declare that we have fulfilled God’s will for our lives if our words and actions during our earthly journey have intentionally prevented our fellow humans from knowing Jesus or pushed them away from Him?
I do not want to be that person. Rather, I embrace the diversity of paths to our Risen Lord, all within the doctrine — and not necessarily the traditions — of my denomination and the inerrant Word of God. I hope that others will open their minds and hearts to the wide possibilities and varieties of ministry and join this same journey! To Him alone be all the glory!
Amen!. Contrasting two opposite sides of an issue is meant for clarification. It is meant as both/and rather than either/or. “To the Jew I became as a Jew and to the weak I became weak….I became all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.”
Here at Royal Redeemer about a third of our worshipers prefer the traditional sanctuary with its symbols of God beyond the ordinary (transcendent) and two thirds in the Activity Center, with the everyday feel of a gym (Immanent).
So, you’re saying it’s all about preference? Isn’t that as consumerist as it gets? I don’t believe your quote from the Apostle Paul is really apropos to the issue either.
What do you do with the fact that the fastest growing segment of Christianity is Orthodox? Also once again we are encouraged to give in to a selfish segment of culture instead of challenging them to be disciples instead of consumers. This generation will also pass away but the Lord and His Church will remain.
I would like to see some data from North America supporting your claim of fastest growing. On the south suburbs of Cleveland we have lots of ethnic orthodox churches. I don’t see any growth. I don’t run into any people who have visited them.
Yes, a significant part of Americans can be described as selfish. Do we just write them off? Are they not worth reaching with the Gospel?