St. John the Lutheran

In twenty-first century America, not a lot of time or effort is spent on the seemingly lost art of compromise. Bipartisanship has become an ideal, much like world peace or social justice – things that we believe strongly must exist, but except in small pockets, seem unrealistic. As political and social issues become more polarized, we are losing our ability to separate one issue from another. Christian denominations have also aligned themselves with political parties that only partially support the values that they hold dear. In doing so, they too often ignore blatant contrasts with their core beliefs in the name of supporting the “lesser evil”. As Christians, we also tend to associate other Christian denominations with political parties and seem to have forgotten that we are brothers and sisters in Christ, a bond that is supposed to be much stronger than political affiliations, or even theological differences. As followers of the one that taught us to love God, love our neighbors, and even love our enemies, it is our responsibility to set aside our differences and, in the spirit of love, make an effort to learn from each other. We all know what we would like for “them” to learn from us. But, what can we learn from “them”?
I was born and raised as a Southern Baptist and have only been part of a “mainline” Protestant denomination for a few years. The term “mainline” is a bit of a misnomer and refers to denominations that have a history of being the dominant churches in America until about the middle of the twentieth century: Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, United Methodists, etc. These denominations are increasingly struggling to survive and have experiences dramatic decreases in membership over the past 20 years. The term Evangelical or Fundamentalist are frequently used to refer to denominations such as Southern Baptist, Assemblies of God, Assemblies of God, etc. These classifications, along with terms such as “liberal” and “conservative” are over-generalized and do not take into account the rich traditions of individual denominations or the dramatic differences of each congregation within each denomination. All of that being said, based on my personal experiences, I believe very strongly that there are at least four important lessons that Mainline Protestant denominations must learn from Evangelicals in America in order to survive moving forward. The first is the ability to effectively motivate our parishioners to apply what they learn on Sunday morning to their daily lives. The second is to bring passion into our faith lives, followed closely by bringing passion to the worship services. Finally, mainline denominations must find a voice in and amongst the prevailing voices in this country that represent Christianity.

Practicing Our Faith on Monday through Saturday
When I first became a Lutheran, the thing that I missed most from Sunday morning worship was the motivation to take what I was learning on Sunday and practice it during the rest of the week. Baptist pastors are tremendous orators. They deliver a sermon with enthusiasm and leave you with memorable points and anecdotes that help you to apply the message in your everyday life. They apply scripture topically and focus on the perceived needs of the congregation. In many Lutheran churches, parishioners begin looking at their watch and clearing their throats when the sermon reaches 15 minutes and 10 seconds. For good reason too! Many of the Lutheran pastors that I’ve heard deliver sermons with the enthusiasm of a wet rag. The focus is too often on intellectualizing the scriptures texts or generalizing the topic so much that the summary of the sermon becomes common sense that offends no one, but also challenges no one. Public speaking is an art form and it is something that is expected in modern day America. Those attending church on Sunday mornings might be interested in the historical context of a verse or find the cute anecdotes mildly humorous, but what they are craving is to hear God speak to them personally through the words of the pastor. And the things they want to hear God speak about are how to have a better marriage, what to do with their teenage kids, how to cope with depression, what they should do about their ailing parents, and how living our faith can make their world a better place. Each Sunday, there are between 12 and 15 minutes provided to the pastor in most mainline denominations to deliver the sermon. This is considerably less than in most evangelical churches, but it is still a chance for the congregation to hear the word of God and to see a genuine passion for the gospel in their spiritual leader.
The reason that the sermons are so short in most mainline congregations is because the opportunities to receive life application during worship go beyond just the message portion of the service. Whether the pastor is able to deliver a decent sermon or not, there is an abundance of application in the liturgy. Unfortunately, my experience has been that most of the people who are attending liturgical services do not have more than a basic understanding of why we do liturgy, and understand even less about how it applies to their daily lives.
Mainline denominations need to do a better job of training their pastors to be better public speakers and focus more on application. Mainline denominations also need to better educate their congregations on the reasons that we do liturgy and how it models discipleship.

A Passionate Life of Faith
Jesus was passionate about his faith. Paul was passionate about his faith. Martin Luther, John Wesley, and John Calvin were all passionate about their faith. Lutherans are also very passionate. We are passionate about social justice, education, church polity, and most of all we are passionate about our social clubs… er… churches. But mention the Holy Spirit or God’s miraculous intervention into our own lives and most of the Lutherans that I know get very uncomfortable. Why is that? I believe one reason might be because we have over-intellectualized our faith.
One of the reasons that I left the Baptist church was because of my discomfort with what I perceived as emotional manipulation. I truly understand that there is a line that can be crossed where faith becomes something more like superstition. However, if God is not active in our everyday lives, why do we bother worshiping God? If I pray for God to do something and it happens, why is it so hard to publicly praise God for it? We have become so cynical and pragmatic that we fail to see God’s work even when it is right there in front of us.
If there is a desire to know what someone is passionate about, look at their priorities. We make the time for our passions, we spend money on our passions, and we talk about our passions to our friends. In contrast, we find ways to avoid things that we are not passionate about. We procrastinate, make excuses, and when we do finally follow through, it is with an attitude of “let’s get this over with”. The membership and participation in mainline churches continues to drop because mainline parishioners generally are not passionate about faith, at least not the faith that they are experiencing at church. We must do a better job of inspiring passion in our congregations.

Passionate Worship
Evangelical churches have dramatically changed the way they worship over the past 20 years. Hymn books are gone, organs are gone, suits are gone, pews are gone, choirs are gone, and bulletins are gone. In their place are PowerPoint presentations, professional quality bands, Hawaiian shirts and flip-flops, theater seating, praise songs, and full color brochures. They give the impression that they are passionate about worship and that they want those seeking God to be passionate about it as well. (However, I often felt like the passion tended to be contrived and completely focused on bringing in new members, aka more money).
We also have something to be passionate about. The rich tradition and effectiveness of the liturgy and sacraments is definitely something to be passionate about. Going back to an earlier point, mainline churches must educate people on these traditions in order to inspire this passion. Additionally, as our members become passionate about their faith, they will also become more passionate about worship because that is their faith tradition. We also can learn from the evangelicals and continue to “loosen up” on some of our more stodgy traditions in order to be more inclusive. Many of our churches already do a good job of welcoming those in more casual apparel on Sunday mornings, and many of our churches have begun offering more “contemporary” services. However, we must be careful not to abandon the traditions that have proved effective over generations of Christians.
Mainliners pride ourselves on our intelligence. Surely, we are intelligent and creative enough to have services that incorporate the traditions vital to deepening our faith, and at the same time make those who are new to our churches feel welcomed and excited to begin their own faith journey.

Christian and Proud of It
To proclaim oneself a Christian in America today is to immediately be classified as a fundamentalist. Evangelicals have done such an excellent job of advancing their views that most of America now stereotypes all Christians as fundamentalists. Mainline denominations must work together to change the public image of Christianity and make the public aware that the true model of following Jesus is to live our lives focused on gospel and grace as opposed to law and judgment.
Since joining the staff of an ELCA church, I have noticed an incredible amount of energy being spent on discovering what mainline churches can do to reverse significant downward trends in attendance and in contributions. I have witnessed previously successful churches that have had to close, other churches that now have to share pastors, still more churches that only open the doors on Sunday mornings, and many more churches that live in fear that soon they too will no longer be able to stay afloat. I have read countless magazine articles about the national decline in church attendance and the impending demise of some mainline denominations. It seems as if America’s historical mainline denominations are in a hopeless state of decline.
For the mainline churches in America are going to reverse this trend, we must be open-minded to what has worked for evangelicals. When a business is failing, they must expand their market base, improve their product, generate passionate customers, and proudly promote their strengths. It is true that a church is not a business and I certainly do not believe that we should treat it as such. However, that does not mean that good business principles to not apply to a church. We try to use good business principles in the way we handle our money, treat our employees, deal with vendors, and structure our governance. Why not in the way we market ourselves as well? We must recognize that there is a religious economy and evangelicals have dominated that economy in America for a long time. The fact is, most Christian churches that do try and focus on marketing are not even that good at it. My background is in graphics, and church marketing has always been perceived just the same as popular Christian music and Christian movies: People say, “That was pretty good for a Christian movie/song/graphic/website/etc.” The only reason that evangelicals are dominating mainliners in this marketing battle is that most mainline churches deliberately ignore marketing and consider marketing as a low priority and, therefore, it receives no funding in the budget. I still get newsletters in the mail from half of the Lutheran churches in Austin printed on colored construction paper – the exact same newsletters they were sending out 35 years ago! And, most of the websites are just terrible. It appears to those unfamiliar with our churches as if we are not only ignorant of technology, but also are set in our ways and not even looking for anyone new to join our private club. When people see an organization’s media, they draw an impression of the organization. If we want people to view us as relevant, we must present ourselves that way.
In conclusion, I believe that most Americans are wary of those who most publicly represent Christians. The recent GOP primaries show that fundamentalists are losing a grip on their control of the Republican Party. There is no place in today’s America for a Christianity that publicly proclaims moral superiority, while making public statements that contrast dramatically from the teachings of Jesus. America needs a new voice of Christianity to step-up and be the voice of Jesus – a voice of love and grace that reaches out to those who are marginalized, a voice that is only harsh to those who dwell on the law rather than forgiveness and grace, those who commit injustices in the name of God, and those who cause so much pain and suffering in order to achieve riches and power. In order for this voice to be heard, mainline denominations must practice what they preach, be passionate and proud of our faith, be passionate about the way we worship our savior, and present ourselves so that people recognize that we are passionate and proud of who we are and who we serve.