For Wilshire Baptist Church
The family came to the funeral in South Texas from a variety of directions. Some through Houston, some through Austin, some through San Antonio. We came through Waco and straight south on US 77, which is the most direct route from North Texas. It’s also the most serene and scenic way to go, in my opinion. But, we all got there, and that’s all that was really important.
Somewhere on the way down we got to talking about church and wondering what it would take to get more people into the church building and engaged in the fellowship, missions and shared vision of our community. No doubt the pandemic has set many churches back in terms of attendance, with some people choosing not to come back at all and others taking advantage of on-line trends.
From what I can tell, even before the pandemic, some churches have beaten the drum — both figuratively and literally — for an up-tempo worship experience to get people excited and engaged in worship. I’ve experienced some of that, and to me it feels more like entertainment than worship. I tend to think there is entertainment enough in our culture, and churches should work on cornering the market on reverence and meditation, along with spiritual growth and service in the community. But just as with our funeral trip, maybe it’s enough that people show up.
Perhaps the bigger issue is the trend toward not showing up at all. There’s a long quote being passed around on Facebook recently that I think speaks well to why church attendance is still important. I don’t know the original source, so I apologize for not giving credit where it’s due, but here is the heart of the quote:
“You can’t serve from your sofa. You can’t have community of faith on your sofa. You can’t experience the power of a room full of believers worshipping together on your sofa. Christians aren’t consumers. We are contributors. We don’t watch. We engage. We give. We sacrifice. We encourage. We pray by laying hands on the hurting. We do life together. The church needs you. And you need the church.”
Those words resonate with me, and yet they have generated considerable pushback from different corners of the church world. There are many who argue that with church attendance declining steadily worldwide, online offerings may be the best last hope for keeping the church alive and relevant. Some speculate that online worship may even draw people back through the doors in time.
I’m not against online church. Not at all. It sustained us through the pandemic, keeping our community connected in worship, service, learning and giving. And it’s been great to have for those times when we can’t be at church but want to worship. Case in point: Driving back up through the heart of Texas on Sunday morning, we listened to our church’s live stream and even spent the last few minutes parked outside a gas station until the last words were spoken so we wouldn’t lose the cell signal. It was good to be connected in that way.
There are many roads to faith, fellowship and a spiritual life, just as there are many routes on the map to wherever you are going. I still think that being there in person is the place to be, and I still like the reverence and meditative tones of a traditional worship experience. But then I also prefer the quiet of a two-lane blacktop to the high-octane energy of a six-lane super slab.