3-D Church: Problems of the Past and Present

The Problems

The Typical Church of the Past

The worship, learning, and fellowship environment of the typical “Church of the Past” that I have been part of has had the following characteristics, which are insufficient to hold the interest and provide for the needs for spiritual growth of the coming generations. And, in fact, these characteristics are viewed as deadening even to many in the older generations, including myself, right now. Perhaps some or all of these factors are present in church environments where you have been.

There was only one worship gathering of the congregation a week, and its total focus was on frequently boring, “talking head” sermons. (And one mid-week Bible Study gathering, with the focus totally on another talking head.)
Although music was integrated into the service, it was mostly done through emotionless and often boring song services comprised entirely of music styles of the centuries past.
There was no expectation that the average church member would use or develop any real spiritual gifts, nor be actively involved in any way with either evangelism or discipleship of others. So neither sermons nor Bible studies made any effort to equip them to do so. Primary emphasis was on head knowledge of doctrines and prophetic speculation, and personal obedience to a list of dos and don’ts.
In spite of the fact that serious relationship problems, such as family and marriage issues, were rampant, there was no systematic effort to equip people in a personalized accountability setting to apply biblical principles to such problems. (Merely reading a booklet or a magazine article, or even hearing a dry sermon about the issues is not enough!)
In spite of the fact that many if not most people in congregations were constantly dealing with depression or discouragement from the struggles of life, very little effort was made in most services to include inspirational and uplifting aspects to messages, to fortify people for the coming week.
In spite of the psychological reality that people respond positively to enhancement of their environment for worship, most meetings have been held in drab settings. Some groups I have met with have rented facilities for their worship gatherings from motels, school libraries, and even union halls. There were few embellishments to the environment other than a flower arrangement up front next to a lectern. But I have found that even those groups which have their own church building often leave their worship area drab and lifeless also. For older groups with a formal sanctuary, it may look little different than it did a century ago. For newer buildings, the meeting room may look little different from a motel conference room. With flowers next to the lectern.
In spite of the biblical admonition to “sing a new song,” and in spite of it being obvious that “out in the real world” people crave variety and creativity in just about every aspect of their lives, little has changed about worship services in most church circles throughout their history. No matter the denomination, a significant proportion of church services have changed little for centuries! This is particularly surprising among groups formed much more recently. Rather than establish a new way of doing things, they often become just a clone of the way things have always been done in the musty old denominations.
Research has shown that groups which focus some of their efforts into mobilizing their whole congregation into active outreaches in evangelism and community service experience more unity and less bickering than those that have all focus kept inside the four walls of the church. Such active groups also have an atmosphere at their gatherings that becomes more and more warm, upbeat, positive, energetic, and forward looking. Both adults and youth often comment that their active participation in such efforts have been life-changing. Yet vast numbers of congregations have NO such outreaches!
Many zealous folks in churches of all types have ended up literally burned out from years of trying to breathe life into a dead … or comatose … system. We need to start fresh, and perhaps we can give hope to those people, and even draw some back to enthusiastic involvement in ministry. And at the same time, we can assure that no more experience such a burn out.

The Typical Church of the Present

Church Services

In most of the settings where I have had fellowship the focus of the weekly “worship service” has not actually been worship at all, but education. Many of the groups I have participated with were not truly “local,” made up of people from one neighborhood or even one town or city. Their historical method of evangelism relied almost totally on mass media efforts on radio and TV stations with a wide regional coverage. This left people who responded to the message widely scattered, with central meeting places arranged for them which might require them to drive a half an hour, an hour, or even more to come together with people who shared their particular doctrinal distinctives.

This continues to be true in such circles to this day. And it means that most members are only able to get together at one weekly gathering, or perhaps two at the most. And they seldom are together for more than a two or three hour period on that day. Thus this once a week gathering has been pressed into duty to meet objectives that prevent it from being all that it can be.

In a church culture that favors “doctrinal purity” as the prime objective, this makes dry lectures on doctrine the standard centerpiece of the weekly meeting. Biblical doctrines are certainly an extremely important part of Christianity. But imparting the details regarding them shouldn’t shove all other aspects of a rounded Christian life to the side. The ideal is a truly local church, where a variety of activities can be spread out to meetings that are held throughout the week.
Over recent decades I have also experienced worship gatherings in more truly local settings. But even there, the people often STILL just had the same two meetings a week, both of which were primarily “spectator oriented.” Just being geographically near one another has not seemed to encourage more interaction within the congregation.
In most church gatherings that I have been a part of, no effort at all is made to make use of modern multi-media options to bring the experience to life. Most messages are in the form of a “talking head.” The topics are mostly dry, and focused on abstract Bible knowledge, or perhaps prophetic speculation, with seldom even any “life application.”
In such settings, little effort is made to provide music that is truly inspirational outside of an occasional performance of special music. Congregational singing is mostly dry, formal, lifeless, and perfunctory, with a very narrow repertoire of songs that participants have sung hundreds or even thousands of times in their life—and yet that they seem to be unable to sing without burying their heads in a hymnal!

Most song leaders do not lead with joy and enthusiasm, using their own voice to draw the congregation into singing with them. They rely on perfunctory waves of the arm to keep the congregation in time, even though almost no one is watching them, since most in the audience have their heads buried in the hymnal!

There is a total disconnect between “church music” and the styles of music that people normally enjoy “out in the real world.” Not only are there no contemporary popular music styles included, the church music never even includes any traditional styles that people normally enjoy singing at informal campfire singalongs, whether folk music or ballads or rounds or any other style.
No forum is provided for active participation by more than two or three people, either in the regular worship service or in a period before or after it.
Prayers are formal and abstract, given by one assigned person from a lectern, rather than heart-felt and personal, and offered by a variety of people as the need arises.
Members seldom eat together except for an occasional potluck. Conversations during whatever minimum fellowship period is available seldom even discuss the message of the day, let alone other bible or spiritual topics, and focus mostly on chit chat.

How can people be satisfied with church gatherings…including music, order of services, style of messages … being the same as the last 200 years, when they’d go nuts in any other part of their life if there had been no change?

There is nothing “holy” at all about the typical style of weekly service in most churches. So such churches aren’t preserving the holy, they are embalming the dead … and presenting it as if it is alive.

People in a comatose church setting looking at the one-man show are like kids in front of a TV … that shows only forty year old cartoons!

What we need to preserve are the principles of the Bible, and present them afresh every generation … all things to all people in all times, as Paul did.

Role of Leadership

In most settings where I have fellowshipped with other Christians, the leadership consists of primarily the efforts of one man who is designated the Pastor. If there are other elders, their role is primarily to fill in for him when he can’t perform his duties because of illness or vacation.
Most pastors seem to view their primary role as one of pouring head knowledge into heads, through delivering dry speeches. If other men in the congregation are given speaking opportunities, they model their own speeches on the same style.
There is little or no emphasis on equipping the average member to do much beyond just living his daily life without overtly sinning.
Pastors also seem to have a monopoly on the roles of counseling and conflict resolution, even if they are not gifted or trained in those areas in the slightest.
And since they are often the only ones giving extensive messages, they are the sole source of encouragement to the group as a whole—and yet few messages focus on encouragement.

Role of members

In most settings, the role of the average member is being part of a passive audience, and imbibing head knowledge.
Most have no concept of the role of “spiritual gifts” in the church as applying to those other than the ordained ministry. They particularly have no concept of what spiritual gifts they might have themselves. And even if they would discover they had some gift, there is no obvious venue in which many of those gifts could operate.

Education

In most denominations, those few members believed to have potential for the key leadership roles … being part of “the ministry” … have been given a very specific education at centralized institutions, aimed at equipping them for those roles. In many cases this education is lacking in many areas, particularly in terms of understanding how to equip the average members congregations for effective “daily Christian living” and for personal evangelism. Most such education has focused primarily on acquiring head knowledge of theological theories and of the denomination’s doctrinal distinctives. The purpose of this educational system typically seems to be to create a separate “class” of people ... the clergy ... who have specialized knowledge in limited areas.
The education of the average member of most denominations often consists of a few crash courses in the basic doctrines of the group, through the use of tools such as dry booklets, dry correspondence course lessons, and dry doctrinal articles in the denomination’s magazines.
The old, dry methods of imparting doctrinal understanding to the average member are painfully inadequate in the Internet age. Few people, especially in the younger generations, get their information any more from printed magazines, newspapers, booklets, or even books. They expect audio, video, and multi-media communication methods. But this does not include audio or video recordings of dry, boring lectures given by mere talking heads!

Children and Teens

Many groups have few children and teens, and even those that do have only a perfunctory class before the church service of perhaps a half hour aimed at meeting their needs.
Few places have any systematic effort at conveying Bible knowledge in a truly engaging way to youth.
And even fewer have any systematic, dynamic effort at mentoring children and teens in applying biblical principles to life and to their relationships.

If we are to effectively minister to the coming generations, if the Church as we have known it is to even exist twenty years from now as more than a dry shell, if it is to have any real impact on the world at all—all of these factors need to be changed.

I am part of a generation that is about to die off that is a repository of information and experience that will die with us if we don’t find ways to communicate that information in styles that are effective for the generations younger than us—who are not into dry, boring, pedantic writing and speaking styles!

Summary of Primary Needs

A nurturing environment in which every Christian can be equipped to live life to the fullest and use their natural and spiritual gifts to the fullest in service to God, one another, and the world.
An inspiring environment that helps everyone to worship God with zeal and joy, refreshes and lifts them up, and fortifies them for facing “the outside world” of their everyday life.
An educational environment in which the basics of the Gospel, the guidance of scripture for daily Christian life, and the important doctrinal understandings of the Bible are dynamically and effectively taught.
A down-to-earth leadership training program in which those who have the gifts and calling to roles of leadership within the body can be equipped and mentored intellectually, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to fill those roles most effectively—with a servant’s heart.
A package of plans, methods, and materials available for those in a grassroots movement to use in effectively reaching the modern world with the Gospel of Christ.

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to explore our vision for how these needs can be met.