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An oversimplified history, but the churches that became Fundamentalist and later Evangelical were splitting off from the high church protestant denominations. They had slogans like “No creed but Christ” and wanted a living, emotional and free experience instead of what they considered dead orthodoxy. Birthed out of revivalism, being born again was the heart of their message, and along with that individualism over community.
In my lifetime as a believer, I’ve seen churches gradually move away from regular communion to the point that its recommended in small groups rather than Sunday morning. I’ve met people who had followed Christ for a decade and not been baptized, mostly due to lack of emphasis at church. For the megachurch, the sacraments haven’t fit neatly into the Sunday morning program. It’s hard to manage with 10,000 people, and smaller churches have followed the megachurch example.
I’m on the teaching team at a small church, and we’ve been gradually adapting to the church calendar with Advent and Lent, as well as moving toward weekly communion. We’ve replaced a long welcome/greeting time with a time of confession and shortened sermons to make The Lord’s Supper more central. The resistance to this has been more challenging than the Covid pandemic and 2020 election, only this time we are losing people. It’s been hard on my marriage as my wife thinks its too much like her childhood experience at a Lutheran church in the 60s.
Anyone been down this road and have thoughts to share?
Terry, I’m sorry you’re losing members.
I was involved in evangelicalism for 20 years before I joined a liturgical church.
Unfortunately, there are quite a bit fewer folks in my church than most evangelical churches in the area.
If you’re on the teaching team, I’d think you’d have opportunities to teach congregants the importance and meaning of the changes you’re making.
I wish I could be of more service to you and your situation. I’ll be praying for you.
Terry
I’m so sorry. I went down a similar road, but it was almost 40 years ago when Bob, Webber and I became friends. We were both attracted to Anglicanism, but over the last 40 years I have watched the Anglican communion splinter and fragment. The good news is that what you’re offering is good and right in itself. The bad news is you will lose people. I’ve watched it happen over and over again. It seems to me that people want a disembodied Christ. That is, a sort of vague spirituality that is not grounded in the church or sacraments. They want Christ without his body, which is the church. It is almost a modern day form of Docetism…
I ultimately gave up on trying to find a large established church such as I was used to. I join myself to an Anglican congregation of about eight. Over the last two years, we have grown it to 45. While we are on the conservative side of Anglicanism, no culture war issues are ever raised. We want people to grow in their faith without any additional baggage. Bob, Weber’s books are still available. You might find some help in his reflections. It goes without saying, anything that I could do I would be more than willing…. Please know that you will be in my prayers.
bob1 – I preached a while back on the importance of creating a sacred space for God to fill. Baby steps.
Duane Arnold – I also met Bob Webber, only more like 35 years ago (1988-89). At the time I worked for Maranatha!Music, and Chuck Fromm had me designing a worship magazine with Bob. I was clueless and had been in a very charismatic ministry before moving to California.
Terry,
It’s a hard thing you’re trying to do.
Almost everyone in my church came out of a Catholic/Lutheran upbringing, then became evangelical.
The evangelicals told them over and over why the liturgy was unbiblical…then we come along and try to re-introduce these treasures to them.
All I can say is I decided we were going to get there even if we lost some…but it’s been a slow process.
We’ve been incorporating some elements of the church calendar into our church recently. This past year we celebrated both Epiphany and Pentecost Sunday, as well as including a Maundy Thursday communion gathering. We also now have the Lord’s Supper every week, and we offer an extended time of prayer response after the message. As Bob shared above, explaining the whys of such changes is so important. For some reason, our church has grown a bit over the past couple years (after taking a major hit because of COVID).
We have communion at least twice a month preceeded by reciting the Apostle’s Creed. I didn’t go into a lot of explanation when I began using the Apostle’s Creed, but I think most people eased into being comfortable with it. I did tell them that this was a way of connecting with our heritage and the saints who went before us. It also gives us a brief overview of the essentials of our faith. Additionally, we take communion every holiday, most fifth Sundays and every Sunday from before Thanksgiving til after the New Years. I talk about Advent, use the passages out of the BCP to teach, but I don’t light candles.
My church is evangelical. This year, for the first time, we observed communion every Sunday during Lent as well as Good Friday. Most of our congregation really appreciated it.
I think it’s funny when evangelicals claim not to be liturgical, but you can predict exactly what will happen in the order of service. Congregants can get really upset if there is any deviation (especially the older folks). My step-dad was Catholic, and I attended Mass with him several times. I was impressed by the amount of Scripture in the Mass, more than in many evangelical services. I’m still not very liturgical, but very respectful.
I’ve never attended a church that was liturgical although I’m very interested in aspects of it, particularly in the church calendar and the focus the different seasons can bring as part of our worship (lent and advent for instance). If anyone knows good resources to help a newbie with understanding in this area, let me know. The good news is for me it can’t be rote since I’ve never really observed any of it before 🙂
In an interview, Speaker Mike Johnson said if you want to know his world view, open a Bible.
Mike Johnson: The House Ethics Committee report on Matt Gaetz should not be released to the Senate for analysis during his confirmation process.
Not my Bible.
Not mine either.