A couple interesting postings about the mainstream church worth looking at.
The InternetMonk (Michael Spencer) Mainline Churches: We’re Having a Moment Here and Andy Rowell
A Former Pastor Goes Church Shopping.
So what's interesting here? Simply, the idea that the mainstream church has something to offer than independent, nondenominational, evangelical, megachurches do not.
I have felt for quite a while that the mainstream church will go through a resurgence as young people grow into middle age and desire greater diversity in their worship experience. Two anecdotes about the same church.
A pastor of a large and growing evangelical church near where I live told me twelve years ago as they were first getting started that they were a church for people burned out on church. They were casual and non-threatening in their approach. They followed the Willow Creek model and they grew. I have lots of friends who attend this church. In describing the church as designed for "people burned out on church", my initial reaction was that they were lowering standards to appeal to people who want a low-consequence faith experience. I may have been a bit judgmental, okay, quite judgmental in my opinion. They continue to grow and now have over two thousand attending worship services.
Their youth pastor is a great guy, and is doing some very innovative work with his program. We were chatting the other day about their Saturday night service. He said, "It was started to relieve some of the pressure of numbers on Sunday morning. Its more liturgical. Lots more responsive readings. We have about 200 people coming on Saturday nights." More liturgical.
I think the larger picture is not the numbers but the continuous shifting of the ground under the church. Just because megachurches work from a numbers perspective, doesn't mean that they work in all areas. I believe we will see a resurgence of the mainstream church as young people, people younger than 40 right now, come into prominent leadership roles. There is a Facebook group advocating for a young person to be the PC(USA) moderator. I certainly would be glad to see someone under 40 in that role.
If you are in the mainstream, take heart, you day is not over. Realize the strengths of your tradition and share that with people. A better day is returning. Thanks be to God.
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