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| Earl Gillespie |
The Church
And
The
James Brown Effect
All the world's a
stage, And all the men and women merely players: thus began the monologue
from William Shakespeare’s, As you like it.
A member of the Generation X defined a local church as one big stage created
by those who wants to be players. It is the place where local actors go to preform. Liturgy once a communal response to the sacred Word through
Activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, supplication, or repentance are changing. Barriers of separation between Christianity and the natural tendencies of humanity is falling.
Millennials, an abbreviation for the millennial generation, is a
term used by demographers to describe a segment of the population born between
1980 and 2000 (approximately). Sometimes referred to in the media as
"Generation Y," Millennials are the children of the post-WWII baby Boomer
generation. This is the generation that
are are walking away from the church.
The question that many pastors entertain is how to reverse the mass
migration from the church by Generation X, while some just plain and simply refuse
to acknowledge that the problem exist.
The assumption among many Christian leaders is
that the key to drawing the twenty-something crowd back into the church is to
make a few style updates, change the beat of the music, add more musicians, more
casual services, a coffee shop in the fellowship hall or a pastor and wife who
wear skinny jeans. Dance groups and
praise teams are a good way to draw friends and relatives of the performers or
the want-to-be performers. These groups may
even contribute to the natural growth of the church, but it is the spiritual
growth of the masses that suffers when these performances become the heart our liturgy. The showmanship of the pastor and wait staff
no longer holds the “Awe” that it once held.
This millennial
generation not easily impressed
with consumerism or performances. Church
performances are just one more thing
that has been said to be driving this generation away from the church. Many Christians
are finding themselves increasingly drawn to high
church traditions because the ancient forms of liturgy seem so unpretentious, so
unconcerned with being “cool,” and they find that refreshingly authentic.
Growing
up indoctrinated in the Baptist and Pentecostal church worship platform, I was indoctrinated in the hoop and holler
method of preaching. The preacher would
read a scriptural, one that was easily spiritualized, then he would begin to
weave a story that could be related to by most of the church members. The congregation was encouraged to
participate in the story telling or message from God by shouts of “Amen” or
“Preach”. Once the excitement built to an acceptable
frenzy, the tone of the preacher would change as he began to sermonize, amid
scream and shout . In the Baptist
church the ushers were prepared to rush to the side of those overcome by the
“Spirit of God”, holding them down, using hand fans and wiping tears were
standard procedures. In the Pentecostal
church, when the spirit hit you, you were encouraged to get up and dance. There were certain phrases that could be
used to get a church worked up. In the
Baptist church if the crowd was slow to respond the preacher had a way of going
into the graveyard and digging someone up.
The pastor of one church was famous for , “I got a mother gone on, and
if she was here tonight she would tell you…”, church out! I have seen a Pentecostal preacher turn the
church out with just three words, “isn’t God Good”.
Young
aspiring ministers would often emulate older preachers that had a strong voice
and could stir up a church group. Many preachers mastered the art, but some come off with a strange screeching
that keep many on the edge of their seat , wondering if the speaker was about
to have a heart attach. The thing that
bothered some was, that once the, “Spirit of the Lord started moving” you no
longer could understand anything that was said.
A preacher came to our church and
preached a message from the twenty third Psalms, it was a beautiful message
that explained to our young minds the concept of Jesus being our Shepherd. The church sat in stoic silence, occasionally
there was an “ amen”. After the minister sat down the pastor took to
the pulpit, he began, “The Lo----ord is my Sheppard, “AHAW”, and I , and I say I, can you say I, I just
want to say IIIIIIIII shall not want, People began to dance, scream and jumping over beaches, He turned the place
out. What was confusing to me when I
reached the age of curiosity, was there was an ethnic flavor to this type of,
“having church.”
In
the ancient days a piano or organ was the extent of the musical instruments
acceptable in a church worship setting.
With the advent of the pentecostal movement all of that seems to have
changed. First it was drums and washboards
that evolved into a full scale church band with many different types of
instruments. To compete with the, “get
down and juke” entertainment aspect of modern religion many other denominations
gave in to the use of musical instruments in their worship service.
Growing
up in a Pentecostal environment I had little contact with any music other than
church music. Off to college at an early
age I had a desire to gather experiences that I had missed out on . James
Brown was coming to town and the concert was a big event on campus and I never
had been to a concert before. The night
of the concert came and I arrived early at the auditorium and braved the long
line to get a good seat. The huge auditorium
was filled with a standing room only crowd.
The band began playing to warm the crowd up, after everyone was rocking to the beat the
announcer introduced James Brown as the hardest working man in show
business. James Brown appeared on stage
with a cape draped over his shoulders, ran to the microphone, removed it from its
stand, danced his way to the edge of the
stage, fell down on his knees and moaned two words, “Please, please”. The auditorium erupted in screams, people
were climbing over seats, some fainting, as others rushed to fill the small
dancing area around the stage. I had
seen this reaction before in the church, and it was called the “spirit of God.”
Words
are powerful, how they are used, the environment they are used to set the stage
for emotional reaction, and emotional reactions should not be defended as the
Spirit of God. In many settings we are
indoctrinated into a reactive state. The
yelling “fire” in a crowded theater will cause a panic reaction, but when the
announcer yells the word “Touchdown” at a football game a reaction of euphoria ensued.
Both reactions involve physical and emotional reactions, but neither
should be interpreted as the Spirit of God.
In
order to draw the millennium youth back to church, many churches have begun to
exploit the entertaining aspect of Christianity. The nightclubs had once been the place to go
to get your “juke on”, the church has now become the place to “get your praise
on”. The churches that refuse to go
along with todays modern interpretation
of Christian worship risk becoming a haven for the elderly and the handicap. To offset this prediction many churches have
begun to compete with institutions of higher learning and promise supernatural
favors that is not in accordance with
the Word of God.
What the millennial generation really wants from the church is not a change
in style but a change in substance.
They want an end to the culture wars. The generation that is coming on
after us is a highly educated generation and they want a truce between science
and faith. They want to be known for what
they stand for, not what they are against.
There is a need to be able to ask questions that have not predetermined
answers. The churches need to emphasize an allegiance to the kingdom of God rather
than an allegiance to a single political party or a single nation or even a
single pastor. The Bible should not be treated as a playbook for motivational speakers, it should be treated as the word of God, if not then it is time we burn it.
Next
The Seven Vials of the Wrath of God
Revelation 16:1
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