I was surprised to pick up my local newspaper recently and find an opinion column entitled "Old Time Religion." The column was written by a local writer who just happens to be a Christian and a member of a local church. She shared a recent experience about a young man coming to her and inviting her and her family to his church. To quote the writer, she said the invitation went like this: "You and your husband and kids really ought to come to our church. We don't sing any of that old timey music and nobody has to wear church clothes. You just come anyway you are, and nobody cares what you do the rest of the week. You just come and enjoy worship services and leave with a really good feeling."
Needless to say, the writer wasn't too impressed with the invitation. While she thanked the young man for the invite, she also told him that she already had a church home and that she and her family would continue to worship there.
When I hear and read stories like this, I'm reminded yet again that churches have changed quite a bit over the last decade or so. Naming all those changes would be virtually impossible, but I think it would be beneficial to mention a few. As the young man mentioned, the music of many churches has changed. Where churches once incorporated a lot of hymns into their worship, many of those hymns have now been labeled as "old timey music." Consequently, they've been abandoned for songs with a much more modern sound.
I'm certainly not against music that has a more contemporary feel. In fact, I like a good deal of the music that gets air-time on contemporary Christian radio stations. Yet, I wonder if it's good that some modern churches have done away with the "old timey music." I learned some of the richest and deepest theology of my life through the singing of those old standards. Our music has definitely changed, but has it changed for the better?
The young man also indicated that church attire has changed over the last several years. I would agree. When I was a kid, it would have been unthinkable to get up on Sunday morning and wear shorts and bluejeans to worship. Now we find it to be a common occurrence. Why the difference? I think it has to do with a new attitude about worship. As the young man said, "You just come anyway you are." To me, it begs the question: Why did the old-timers feel that they needed to dress up when they went to God's house? Perhaps it was because they were trying to present the very best they had to God. "Church clothes" have surely changed, but I wonder if they've changed for the better.
And as the young man indicated to the writer, at his church you can come and worship "and nobody cares what you do for the rest of the week." I doubt that is the message that the young man's pastor was trying to send, but it's pretty sad that he received that impression. Maybe the young man got that impression because it seems that even the message of many churches has changed. In some churches, doctrines that have stood intact for centuries are now being cast to the wayside.
Rob Bell, pastor of a contemporary megachurch in Grand Rapids, Michigan, just recently wrote a book called Love Wins. In the book, he essentially denies the biblical doctrines of heaven and hell. That's right - the man who is a pastor of what is supposed to be an evangelical church denies the bibically-based and historically-cherished doctrines of heaven and hell. The message and the doctrines of many churches have changed, but have they changed for the better?
Clearly, there are no shortage of changes in our churches, but my concern is that our churches don't have THE CHANGE they most desperately need. I'm talking about the kind of change that comes from a life that's totally surrendered to Jesus Christ. We can change our music, our clothes, our buildings, and anything else we want to. But until the people in our churches are changed, our world will continue to see most of our churches as an irrelevant and unnecessary joke. Perhaps they're right.
