I received letters in response to my July/August column. Some were offended I would suggest Sunday morning service is often a waste of time. Others agreed. I present one of these letters in place of my column this month. It is by Rev. Laurence DeWolfe, of Saint David's, Halifax. He also teaches preaching at the Atlantic School of Theology.
Andrew Faiz writes, "We stay [in our churches] because our fellows in the pews become our family… The sermon [is] the price we have to pay for coffee hour." Let's suppose he's right. Faiz's perceptions echo what I've heard from people of all ages, especially those younger than me. I'm old enough to have heard at least 500 more sermons than he has.
What leads Faiz and others to dismiss preaching and write off worship? Sometimes we who lead worship don't prepare well. We justify poor leadership, saying, "Well, as long as it's sincere…" Sometimes we act as if prayers and readings are just add-ons to preaching. Or begrudged additions to praise music.
Boring sermons are all too common. They are sure signs the preacher thinks too little, or too much, of her or his abilities. Or he or she has decided preaching isn't that important, after all. It seems some preachers have just given up trying to be their best.
Faiz is kind enough to say, "I know that most ministers… take Sunday service very seriously." But he says he finds most preaching condescending and paternalistic. Surely that has more to do with his reluctance to accept being preached to, than it does with the quality of any sermon or the skill of any preacher. But let's suppose he's right, and preaching often dents personal faith and usually fails to enhance spirituality.
I always choke when I hear the word spirituality. We devoted a whole year to it in The Presbyterian Church in Canada. My conclusion at the end of the year was that I was supposed to "make diligent use of the means of grace," as I had promised to do when I joined the church at age 15. But Faiz seems to mean something other than prayer, public worship, Bible reading, preaching and the sacraments.
Spirituality means whatever the speaker wants. To some, it's synonymous with Christian faith. To others, it's the antonym of religion or church. Spirituality covers anything to do with our sense or experience of God, self or community. I can't make it more specific than that. Maybe the reason worship and preaching tend not to enhance spirituality is that they're so darned specific.
Good preaching may begin with the general, but it always gets specific somewhere along the way. It grows out of a pastoral awareness of what's important for a congregation in its specific situation. Whether or not a congregation, or any member, wants to hear it is another matter.
Worship may feed faith, or break it open to reveal its true hunger. Depends on the worshiper's specificity. We can always find new and appropriate ways to offer praise and share God's love. Faiz is right to call attention to the reluctance of most congregations to accept any change in worship. New forms or old, the praise we offer and love we speak and celebrate are still specifically Christian. Specifically Christian notes don't always resonate with our personal spiritualities. The word both saves and judges, comforts and afflicts. The post-modern heart may be fully computerized, but it's still a factory of idols.
Maybe worship is a dysfunctional gathering of the clan. After all it is a clan that gathers. I've yet to meet a fully functional family. By God's grace the gathered congregation, and what it does when it gathers, make far more than the sum of its dented and broken parts. God doesn't demand perfection. God deserves quality, but doesn't always get it.
I know Faiz writes to provoke response. More power to him. Sometimes we need a good poke to get us to consider the views of people much more in tune with pop culture than are most Presbyterians. I hope he'll take another look into those two things that have so much to do with the church being church in every age: the worship of the gathered people of God and the preaching of the word.
