I have long admired Gordon MacDonald, and read most of his clear-headed, balanced, passionate, thoughtful books
on organizing one's life for Christian growth and solid discipleship. He is honest, straight-forward, mature, and, although pleasant, utterly no-nonsense. He's forward thinking and pastoral, but what you see is what you get. He's not interested in hipster glitz or po-mo edginess, fads or fashions. He's trying to help church folk get serious, learn skills of maturity, developing into people of strong character who can withstand the hard times of real life. (His last book was on resilience and was very useful.) He wants to make a difference for God, and he understands much about how to do that. I enjoy and respect him.
His new book draws on years of pastoral experience and---a bit surprisingly---is written as a novel, in a clever first person narrative. The book, Who Stole My Church? offers this on the front cover: "What to Do When the Church You Love Tries to Enter the 21st Century." (Nelson; $21.99.) Although not just about church conflict, the story unfolds about a fairly typical, evangelically-minded congregation in New England (he swears it is not one he has pastored, nor are the characters based on real-life people) who have "builder" generation folk perplexed and frustrated by younger members who are making changes in the congregational ethos, spiritual sensibilities and mission of their church. I believe, young or old, progressive or traditionalist, you will find this to be a helpful exploration of being church in our times. I hear of church conflict around these themes---folks pushing too hard for change, folks resisting change, earnest folks trying to discern what sort of change is most appropriate---nearly every single day here in the shop. Before I even started reading, I said right out loud: "Man, I wished I could have had this ten years ago" and proceeded to list a few friends, family members and churches who needed someone wise to walk through this stuff with them.
From the Preface:
on organizing one's life for Christian growth and solid discipleship. He is honest, straight-forward, mature, and, although pleasant, utterly no-nonsense. He's forward thinking and pastoral, but what you see is what you get. He's not interested in hipster glitz or po-mo edginess, fads or fashions. He's trying to help church folk get serious, learn skills of maturity, developing into people of strong character who can withstand the hard times of real life. (His last book was on resilience and was very useful.) He wants to make a difference for God, and he understands much about how to do that. I enjoy and respect him.His new book draws on years of pastoral experience and---a bit surprisingly---is written as a novel, in a clever first person narrative. The book, Who Stole My Church? offers this on the front cover: "What to Do When the Church You Love Tries to Enter the 21st Century." (Nelson; $21.99.) Although not just about church conflict, the story unfolds about a fairly typical, evangelically-minded congregation in New England (he swears it is not one he has pastored, nor are the characters based on real-life people) who have "builder" generation folk perplexed and frustrated by younger members who are making changes in the congregational ethos, spiritual sensibilities and mission of their church. I believe, young or old, progressive or traditionalist, you will find this to be a helpful exploration of being church in our times. I hear of church conflict around these themes---folks pushing too hard for change, folks resisting change, earnest folks trying to discern what sort of change is most appropriate---nearly every single day here in the shop. Before I even started reading, I said right out loud: "Man, I wished I could have had this ten years ago" and proceeded to list a few friends, family members and churches who needed someone wise to walk through this stuff with them.
From the Preface:
The title of this book, Who Stole My Church?, springs from a conversation a few years ago with a distraught man who felt betrayed by the church he had invested in for most of his adult years. From his perspective everything had changed---overnight, he said---into something that made him feel like a stranger in the place he'd always thought of as his spiritual home.MacDonald continues on explaining the situation in many churches these days, and his concerns for all parties involved---"the dear people in the pews"--- who are called by God to be agents of change for the sake of contextualized and effective ministry. He continues, about the crafting of the book,
I listened to him describe what sounded like ecclesiastical carnage. Programs had been dumped, traditional music trashed, preaching styles and topics revolutionized, symbols of reverence (appropriate clothing, crosses, communion tables, and pulpits come to mind) thrust aside.
His anguish (and his anger) began with a young pastor who had been appointed with a challenge from the church's leadership to "stir things up with a new vision."...
...According to my friend, most of the church members---in particularly the older generation---had no idea what they were getting themselves into when all the growth talk began. Who would protest against, he asked, the idea of finding fresh ways to evangelize the unchurched? But what people expected was merely a fresh voice in the pulpit and a program or two imported from more successful churches.
Here's what I heard him saying. What he and his fellow church members had not anticipated was a total shift in the church's culture, a reinvention of ways to love God and serve people. What they did no see coming was a reshuffling of the church's priorities, so that lost and broken people rather than found and supposedly fixed people became the primary target audience. In summary: virtually everything in the life of their church under new leadership became focused on reaching people who were not yet there.
It was during that part of the conversation that my lunch partner finally said, "Our church has been stolen out from under us. It's been hijacked." His solution to the problem? To leave and search for another church that "appreciated" the older and better church ways his generation was familiar and comfortable with.
As I recall the conversation, my friend was less than delighted when he discovered that I wasn't completely sympathetic to his cause. I tried to find a kind way to say, "get used to it," but I wasn't very successful.
My first attempt at writing about church change was abortive. I could not escape the feeling that I was writing one more dull book on an overworked subject. So I restarted my project, but in a way I'd never tried before. I decieded to create an imaginary New England church in which there was a small collection of average people who were bumping up against change issues and resisting them.
Once I set these people in motion, I asked myself: If I were to enter the story as I really am, what would I say to them? How might I engage with them and persuade them to take a fresh look at the realities in our world that do indeed require a new kind of church?
My imagined people are all in their fifties and sixties. They are from the so-called builder and boomer generations, people who were once very much at the center of their churches and have now relinquished control and influence to others younger than they are. Once I had them all in their proper places in my mind, it was as if they took over the story and began to tell it for me. I just had to do the typing.And then, this:
My hope for this book is that it would spark dialogue among people of all generations who love the church. I would be grateful if the book would convince younger generations of church leaders to be more sensitive to the older generation and their thoughts. Conversely, I have a passion that older Christians would be led---if they read this book---to understand why many things about the way we have made church work must change and reflect new realities.To that end, there is a good study guide/group discussion resource in the back. And, to that end, we will sell it at nearly 25% off, bringing the price down to $16.95 I'm sure some of our BookNotes fans should read this. Others, at least, know somebody who would find it helpful. Let's work together and get the word out about this balanced, caring, thoughtful and contemporary parable.
Hearts & Minds 234 East Main Street Dallastown, PA 17313 717.246.3333
I can't wait to read this book. However, my hope is that the concerns that are being expressed by the people he calls the "builder" generation are not ignored. This is a critical problem facing the church, and many congregations who went down the "church growth movement" over the past 20 years have an entire generation of people in their 40's and 50's who are not equipped to deal with the challenges facing them in their lives from a strong scriptural basis. In preparing "milk" for the masses, we forgot to eat the "meat" of the word. Quite frankly, the sustaing content of the Word and more theologically complex music that would nourish the body will draw people to Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit. My sense is that as we enter our midlives, we evaluate everything in terms of its significance for the future. We have been working for many years at jobs, doing tasks in the church, etc., but we are now asking did it make any difference? Unfortunately, the answer is often actually no. We don't want change for the sake of change, or that someone had determined that something is "culturally relevant". Instead, we need to evaluate ideas based on a scriptural model, testing ideas against the truth of scripture. His Spirit will provide the relevance in our lives, convicting us of sin as long as we are actually teaching from His Word.
David
Dr. Day,
Thanks very much for this important contribution. I hope you order the book from us as I think it will be helpful and enjoyable for you.
You are certainly correct about much of what you write (I've posted here about the need for the richer theology of some of the older hymns, got instance.) As I may have written, I sure wish this book, or one like it, was around years ago when the generational tensions and "worship wars" began.
Still, for what it is worth, I doubt if it is as stark as you imply: there are plenty of older folks in most churches who care little for "meat", who are mere traditionalists---hardly living for the glory of God, or striving to witness to the Kingdom of Christ---and although they must be honored and treated with care, their views are sometimes more akin to civil religion and old habits than vibrant, meaty fidelity. And, conversely, there are younger visionaries who perhaps are too quick to promote changes whose faith nonetheless is deep and well-informed, whose passion models Matthew 6:33 and who don't fit the stereotype of a water-down hipster who just wants to comply with contemporary culture.
So, thanks for your good and obviously heart-felt insight; it is the kind of stuff that led MacDonald to write his book. I'd just caution not to reduce things to simplistic caricatures on either side. I haven't finished the new "Who Stole My Church", but so far it's fair, balanced, caring, and eager to be faithful, attentive to both the older ways and the newer contexts.
I'll be eager to hear what you think! Thanks for paying attention to the blog---it means a lot to a small place like us to have folks reading along.
In Christmas peace,
Byron
A worship leader friend told me he was assigned to read Who Stole My Church?. I have read all the reviews I could find. So far, I don't plan to buy or read it myself, due to the negative reviews. It sounds like just another attempt to say contemporary is right and traditional is wrong. Hasty judgement on my part, perhaps, but I am surrounded by loud musicians who insist I am wrong for not worshipping them and their style of worship. That's right; they insist that since their style of worship is superior to mine, then their faith is above mine and I should defer to them.
I am concerned about reports that a character in the story who doesn't "go along" is dismissed as being possibly unsaved or unspiritual.
That is exactly what I get from the modernists!
I am told I "need to get REALLY saved" by those who sneer at me for keeping my nose in a hymnal. How did I lose my salvation by refusing to leer at the lovely praise babes gyrating on the Sunday morning stage? Did I fall from grace for holding a hymnal and singing The Old Rugged Cross?
I refute the reviewers' and the book's apparent assertation that the church is always changing and we have to change with it.
They can have their music, etc, and I am wish them well in the Kingdom. What I cannot accept is them telling me I must change to suit them.
I worship God, not the guitarist, and He has not and will not be changing in order to entertain us.
Bob,
Thanks for this reply; I am glad you wrote. I know this is a huge concern for many of us (it is why we promote the Indelible Grace recordings, for instance, which use solid old hymn lyrics) and I myself have experienced some frustrations with loud musicians.
But, I must say, in all my travels, in all the various events where we've worked with contemporary worship teams, and in all the websites and books I've seen, I have NEVER heard any worship leader ask them to worship them! You are either exaggerating terribly or you are hanging around a cult or something. No serious Christian worship leader would do or say the things you accuse these folks of!
Somebody actually, truly asked if you are really saved because you don't care for their musical stylings? That is bizarre, and I cannot imagine even the most dogmatic "new worship" leader saying such a thing. Where in the world did you meet these kind of so-called worship leaders? I have NEVER encountered anything that lethal in the "worship wars."
There are those who say that their way is mandated in the Bible because we are called to be missional and contextual. There are those that say that if you don't swing to the new beat you must not have a heart for the lost. There are those that over-react to those of us who like more formal liturgical structure and imply we aren't free in the Spirit. Still, I simply haven't found many folks saying things that are too judgmental, and most contemporary worship leaders (at least those who are known, writing books, hosting conferences and such) all do hymns as well as newer praise songs. There are turf wars and power plays, to be sure, about who is in charge of choosing music and such, but I've never heard anybody ask that you worship their guitars, or who won't concede that older classic styles aren't meaningful to some folks. I thought everybody agreed on that.
l
Anyway, I just find your remarks to be really odd, since I haven't ever heard anybody question anybody's salvation, coming from the progressive side. I have heard traditionalists question the maturity of the young rockers; not so much any more, but a decade ago that was a fairly common report.
What sort of church are you a part of? Can your pastor call the offending "leaders" in for a pastoral visit, to explain that it is VERY inappropriate to question someones salvation over this? If most churches heard a worship leader saying such a thing, they'd be pulled from up front promptly...
May God give you extra grace to be kind and fair in all things. THANKS.
in Christ's peace,
Byron