Chapter 4 – Worship and Preaching Matters
This chapter was pretty basic and blah. The gist of the chapter is this: worship and preaching matter. Comeback churches don’t mount a comeback without changing the way they worship and without a renewed spiritual energy in preaching (but the chapter was much more about worship). While the authors repeatedly resisted getting sucked into issues of style, the overwhelming majority of comeback churches described their worship as celebrative, expressive, informal and contemporary. Comeback churches look at their community and the people they are trying to reach and examine whether their worship would be something that would reach those people. Then they make the necessary adjustments.
The best part of the chapter was a personal story the authors related from another pastor. His church had 30 year old sound equipment and needed to make a significant upgrade if it was going to change its worship to reach the next generation. The church agreed to invest in a complete overhaul of the sound equipment and instruments. They did things like buy a $2,500 drum set even though they didn’t have a drummer – to make a statement about where they were going. But here’s the really cool thing:
“What paved the way for the investment was the older generation not just permitting, but actually leading the charge to make the investment. They were the ones saying, ‘It is time for the next generation to lead and spread their wings. This investment will help bring a new generation of Christians back to our church.’ Their leadership and influence is what made this happen. Their humility and desire to place others’ worship style preferences above their own broke my heart. They lost much in their desire to see this church turn around. Everyone knew their financial giving was sustaining the church, and rather than stop giving because they were diminishing, they kept giving and kept encouraging the leadership to make the right moves.”
Wow! That is beautiful. I keep hoping and praying that our older generations will be able to bless and release the next generations to do what God is calling them to do.
Last Sunday, and 82 year old man said to me: “I pray for you every day and I keep telling everyone how much you are just the right man at the right time for this church.” What a blessing that was to me! This man gets it. Not because he flattered me, but because I’ve had other conversations with him and he understands – as I only hope everyone will – that it’s not about him. It’s about doing whatever it takes to find lost people and bring them to Christ.
The question that everyone in our church must answer for themselves is: What am I willing to sacrifice so that others might live?
May God give us each the courage, strength and commitment to find the answers and follow them through.
