Too many people were observing the show but
not meeting God. They meandered in and out of relationship but weren’t in real
community. They sought their spiritual fix but didn’t give themselves fully to
Christ.
Walt Kallestad, Pastor of Community Church of Joy, Phoenix[1]
In 2010, I attended one of the satellite broadcasts of the Willow Creek Association Global Leadership
Summit. The list of speakers was
quite impressive and the substance of their presentations was
thought-provoking. I can still recall
Robert Reich’s talk on altruistic motivation, China’s economic minister
speaking about the impact of Christianity on progressive Chinese culture, and
the inspiring story of TOM’s Shoes. I
also remember the host’s condescending remarks about traditional churches. As he welcomed everyone to the event, he
admitted that some might be surprised to have such a world-class event hosted
by a local church. “But not to worry,” he said, “you won’t have to sing old
hymns or hear a bad choir here.” I
cringed. His comment illustrated the
mindset of many seeker-driven churches against any and all traditions. I recognized Willow’s bias because I had
encountered it many years before when I served in my first full-time worship position
in the late 1980s.
My path to full-time worship vocation was not direct. I had to wait for my opportunity. I had prepared myself to be a minister of
music by enrolling at Biola University as a music major. My undergraduate journey was not without its
challenges, but nevertheless, I did graduate with a B.A. in music and I
expected to secure a full-time position in a church ministry. Into every young life some disillusionment
must come and my failure to secure such an appointment hit pretty hard. But I was hired to be a music specialist at a
Christian School serving K-8 students.
I could have never foreseen it, but my experience at the
Christian School led me to take another position at a similar but much larger
school which was a ministry of the church I attended while in high school. Even though I wasn’t in full-time church
music ministry, it was nice to come home.
Shortly after I started, however, the minister of music was forced to
resign and I was recruited to serve as the interim minister until a permanent
one could be hired. My pathway had many
twists and turns, but I was eventually offered the position two years
later. My term as interim during a very
difficult season in the church had purchased a good deal of trust and
credibility for me to launch my first full-time position in my preferred
vocation. It was my “dream job.”
At Biola, I was well-immersed in hymnology and traditional
church music. But as a product of the
Jesus People Movement, I was also committed to the new praise and worship
genre. With a wide appreciation of both,
I’ve always tried to lead congregations to embrace a broad spectrum of worship
music. I’ve also received a healthy dose
of criticism. That included from the new
Executive Pastor (XP) that the church had hired.
While I was on staff, we were well-positioned for
substantial growth. Our facilities were
more than adequate. Lowering of
double-digit mortgage rates in the mid-1980s unleased a real estate explosion
in the community. The church went from
400 attendees to nearly 1,000 in less than two years. The XP that was hired to accommodate our
growth was influenced by the increasing impact of Willow Creek Church. The staff began attending church growth
seminars that prescribed getting rid of all hymns and choirs and fully
embracing the new contemporary praise and worship music style. While I was bothered by the callous disposal
of church tradition and disregard for the people who struggled with such a
shift, I was even more bothered by the fact that the church growth experts had
never done any serious study and reflection on the topic of Christian
worship. To them, just doing the right
style of music was essential in order to get Boomers to come back to church. We had to provide the “worship product” and
programming that appealed to them.
I wasn’t on staff too long when I began to experience
tension with the XP. I still wanted to
include some hymns in the worship service, but he was determined to eliminate
them. I was frustrated that he, like the
church growth consultants, had done minimal study and reflection on worship (if
any at all) and yet he was dictating policy to me. Worship had been my
passionate focus in study, reflection, and practice for well over ten years. At his direction, I began to draw up a script
for each worship service, a practice that I still do and have found to be quite
helpful for those who lead and are in support roles. But the XP also expected me to recruit a team
of people who would time each element of the service with a stopwatch and
submit their findings to him. Being
formed in part by the Charismatic influence of the Jesus People Movement, I
thought that level of programming control seemed antithetical to Spirit-led
worship.
The hardest challenge, however, came when the XP insisted
that I take one of my core singers off of the praise team because of her
weight. It was important to him that
everyone on the platform convey a certain young and attractive look. Because she was somewhat overweight, she
didn’t qualify. It didn’t matter that
she had a consistent and dynamic Christian testimony and that she was one of my
best singers. She didn’t have the right
look, so the XP did not want to have her on the platform. And, of course, I was supposed to be the one
to tell her.
One of the senior leaders of the church later informed me
that the XP had repeatedly tried to get me fired. Looking back, I know that I was wrong in some
of my insubordination. But it was a
clash of ministry philosophy. Some of the demands that were made of me
conflicted with my deepest held values.
In God’s providence, church conflict from another arena caused the XP to
resign and I stayed on. Such was my
first encounter with the seeker-driven methodology inspired by Willow Creek
Community Church.
A
New Kind of Church
Evangelicalism
in the late twentieth century witnessed the emergence of a new way of doing
church that focused specifically on unbelievers who were spiritually
curious. Churches that focused their
mission on reaching these people were called “seeker-driven” or simply, “seeker
churches.” Of these churches, none has
been more influential than Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago,
Illinois....
The preceding excerpt is from a chapter in Strategic Portraits: People and Movements That Shaped Evangelical Worship. The remainder of the chapter tells the story of Willow Creek Community Church and the impact that the Seeker-Driven Church has had on evangelical worship. As in all of the other chapters of the book, a path to renewal is offered. You may purchase the book at Amazon in print or Kindle format.
[1] Walt Kallestad and Jim Wilson, “Showtime!” No More, Christianity Today,
Fall, 2008. http://www.christianitytoday.com/pastors/2008/fall/13.39.html. Accessed 1.25.2017.
Comments
Post a Comment