Two weeks ago the biggest blizzard in over 30 years hit us in the Chicago area. It started at 3 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon and continued all of Wednesday. The previous Friday the TV meteorologists on all the major Chicago stations began predicting the blizzard. “Our computer models show an incredible storm – possibly the storm of the century – shaping up for early next week.” Saturday and Sunday, they got more specific: a blizzard and extraordinarily large and potentially dangerous snow storm would be arriving in our area Tuesday afternoon. Monday morning, WLS-TV meteorologist Phil Schwartz forecast, “at least 20 inches, and that may be conservative.” All the rest of Monday, every TV and radio station plus the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times warned specifically of a major blizzard with potentially life-threatening conditions, over 20 inches of snow accumulation, winds of at least 70 mph, and it would begin in full force at 3 p.m. CST. They all also said, “Do not attempt to travel in this storm.”
Let me stop here and ask you a question: Could the forecast be any more specific and consistent? And you know what happened next: People (and/or the companies they work for) determined, “Oh…we’re midwesterners, we’re Chicagoans…we can handle this. Those warnings apply to other people, not to me.” A ton of people headed on over to Lake Shore Drive at an opportune time – 3 p.m. – the time we were all told the life-threatening-blizzard-of-a-century would begin in all its fury. What happened? All those people got trapped on Lake Shore Drive overnight. It was scary. It was brutal. It was life threatening.
The next day, media pundits, performance journalists, and politicians all began railing at the City of Chicago for not magically clearing the blizzard out of the way so that people could travel safely in it. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s chief of staff, Ray Orozco, went as far as to apologize for people being trapped on Lake Shore Drive and for the inconvenience of people who were snowed in!! That’s when I wanted to throw a snowball at the TV. If an apology was in order, it was from the people on Lake Shore Drive to the firefighters, cops, paramedics, plow and tow crews who had to brave the snow and cold to get those people and their cars off Lake Shore Drive. Why? All those people suffered from the sin of and fell into the trap of exceptionalism.
Exceptionalism is “the perception that a country, society, institution, movement, or time period is “exceptional” (i.e., unusual or extraordinary) in some way and thus does not need to conform to normal rules or general principles” (Wikipedia article). Fall into the trap of exceptionalism and you end up, well, trapped. Without exception.
That’s the condition of a lot of churches today. We’ve struggled with it at Faith Community Church. A recent report in a publication called The Presbyterian Outlook is just one more report of what everyone by now should know:
U.S. membership has increased in the Roman Catholic Church – the nation’s largest Christian body – but the No. 2 Southern Baptist Convention, along with most traditional Protestant denominations, reported continuing decline, according to new figures released by the National Council of Churches.
…Eileen W. Lindner, editor of the Yearbook since 1998, said many experts cite “an increasing secularization of American postmodern society, and its disproportional impact on liberal religious groups” as the cause of decline in some American churches.
Jack Haberer, editor of the independent The Presbyterian Outlook magazine, said the trend has been long in coming, prompted by Baby Boomers who went off to college and confronted “the Beatles and rock `n’ roll and post-Vietnam distrust of bureaucracies and a kind of an anti-traditionalist youth movement.”
“Baby Boomers who are also Christians, in general, have been drawn more to churches that are more informal, less institutional, and more rock ‘n’ roll-ish,” Haberer said. “Presbyterians and other mainline denominations have been very slow in reading those trends and thinking through a way to accommodate without compromising the theological integrity.”
Wow. I wouldn’t have thought to trace it back to the Beatles. But okay. It’s been a hard days night for churches for a long time. Distrust of bureaucracies? Check. Anti-traditionalist? Check. (And don’t confuse tradition and traditionalism. One’s good, one isn’t). “Slow in reading those trends and thinking through a way to accommodate without compromising the theological integrity”? Well, I’d argue not so much slow as mostly defiant or in total denial. And with the possible exception of Episcopalians, most mainline Protestants would have a hard time proving a liturgical form, or a traditional body of music, or a traditional form of church governance, as being integral to the “theological integrity” of their respective traditions.
Think about this, too: Baby Boomers are in their 50s and 60s. So a church that won’t adapt the form and style of their worship to be compelling to even Baby Boomers are basically writing off all unreached people age 60 and younger. Coincidentally, peek in a stubbornly traditional Protestant worship service and what age group do you see? Primarily 65 and older.
Please don’t read this as me saying “let’s write off the 65 and older crowd so that we can reach the rest of the world.” It’s me saying that if someone’s been warming a chair or a pew for 65 years or more, their hearts should be formed in Christ sufficiently that they are ready and willing to surrender form and style in order that their children and grandchildren will know and have a relationship with Jesus. Indeed, at Faith Community Church, there are a bunch of 65+ saints who feel exactly that way (and a handful who don’t).
We’ve been praying and discerning and seeking God’s will intensely at FCC. We believe God is telling us that FCC is supposed to be viable and strong for a significant number of years to come. We believe God is telling us to get busy reaching people in our area who are not currently being reached. 244 people were together in worship at FCC this past Sunday. We hear God and see God telling us that 400 per weekend would be much stronger and much better and that we can do this before Easter of this year. And we believe God is telling us to pay attention to the data and to not suffer from the sin and trap of exceptionalism that would delude us into thinking that we can remain the same and yet achieve different results. So…non-delusional…non-exceptional…but faithful…with faithful results. At FCC, we’re calling it Chapter 2. Welcome to it.
I know this economy is devastating a lot of people. As a pastor, I share a lot of moments of deep pain with people who are struggling. Like you, I wish I had some kind of magic wand I could wave and make it better for everyone. We don’t have that magic wand, of course. So, somehow we need to keep finding ways to team up and transform our collective situation one life at a time. That’s why I’m writing this note.
