A Great Conference
April 16, 2010 by kirby
Filed under Staff Blog
I had a great trip to Victoria for pastor’s conference where the key note speaker was Dr. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (MLK Jr’s pulpit) and Dr. David Lose – Preaching Professor from Luther Sem. Two very gifted people. I was also in the company of my seminary roommate who is trying to stave off the effects of Alzheimer’s which is a devastating illness. The opportunity gave me the chance to talk to other pastors about what they are experiencing. I must tell you there was a strange echo in the air as we all are facing the same challenges.
1.) Our story the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus used to be the primary story of the culture with many institutions in support of the story. Today their are multiple stories that compete from New Age to the Taliban. The bottom line is the Christ Story has lost market share to steal a phrase from business.
2. People are busier than ever filling their lives up with good things while at the same time not having enough time for the best things in life. This translates as sporadic attendance and participation in church.
3. The technology revolution places even greater demand upon preaching because of the ability to live in real time with instant feedback. One of our pastors from Ballard told what it was like on Easter Sunday when the students in worship started getting text messages that some of their friends had been killed in an auto accident early Easter Morning.
4. The deep hunger that exists in our culture for belonging and purpose both which elude a great number of people.
These are just some of the take a ways from this event that speak to the same challenges we are facing at SMLC as we try to adapt to a changing world.
It was also interesting to note the similarity that many of us share where we are touching the lives and more people than ever before while at the same time seeing a decline in worship.
Both speakers boldly underscored how important it is for us to continue to find new and creative ways to get our story before the people. We have been about this for many years at SMLC and Luther’s Table is clearly another sincere effort to explore how to proclaim the gospel in a way that others might hear and follow.
I have to tell you an old goat like me went away inspired to continue to explore what it means to be faithful in proclaiming the Good News in the world today.
So, I got to thinking about the issues presented here and thought of a few things that might help to spread the Good News, while harnessing the positive side of the technology revolution you mentioned in point #3 above. The thought process went something like this…
1) A lot of people (especially younger generation) are using technology on a daily basis (sometimes ALL day) to get information that is of interest to them.
2) Sermons are of interest to people, but they also want the “instant gratification” that you spoke of above. This usually means not scheduling time to attend sermons in-person.
3) How do you get the message to these people when they don’t have or make time to attend services?
Does SMLC currently record sermons (video and/or audio)? If not, do we have the equipment to do so and have it in some kind of digital format? If so, I think it would be fantastic to post these pieces of media to SMLC’s website, Facebook site & any other social media outlets (Twitter? YouTube?) for immediate consumption by the masses.
You could take this one step further and put a link to the electronic donation site SMLC has in place, on these respective pages (website, Facebook, etc). This way, if people like listening to/watching the sermons, they have a way to donate easily & immediately.
Some might argue that this type of initiative would drive attendance down because people don’t have to be there anymore. To some extent, this might be true. However, I believe that given the option, this would actually increase attendance because you get people actively engaged in the church that wouldn’t ordinarily show up at all (thereby missing out on the Good News altogether!). Once you have these people “hooked” (so-to-speak), you will see attendance rise as people like what they hear and MAKE the time to attend in-person.
Please let me know your thoughts. I’d love to hear any kind of feedback on these suggestions – positive or negative. There could be obvious things I’m missing…I know I’m not perfect. But I think this is a good start to get the ideas flowing, if nothing else. I know we’ve got a lot of smart people at SMLC!
Thanks Jason for your insights. We have the capability to post the sermons in multiple formats on our website, FB, etc. What we have lacked in someone who will own this as a ministry and make it happen.
I think you are right that posting sermons would be beneficial to those who were unable to attend and to expose a wider audience to the word as we proclaim it at SMLC.
Where the Staff wants to challenge the congregation is to move away from consumers of worship to become both participants in worship and in the community that is formed when we gather together.
We had a great discussion at our Special Council meeting as to why people come to SMLC? Clearly they come for good preaching and good music but one voice made it very clear our family comes for the sense of fellowship and community that SMLC offers our household.
What is wonderful about being Lutheran is we can live in a both/and world. We just want to error on the side of inviting people to make a deeper commitment to being a part of the community.