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March 05, 2006
The dying of the big events in our culture.....do we see an effect on the church?
Oscars Foundering in Era of Niches is an interesting article in Sunday's Los Angeles Times. Here are some quotes:
But the problem with the Oscars is more deeply rooted than just public lack of interest in the nominees. Ratings are crumbling for the Oscars, and award shows in general, because the Era of the Mass Event is drawing to a close........
We are now a nation of niches. There are still blockbuster movies, hit TV shows and top-selling CDs, but fewer events that capture the communal pop culture spirit. The action is elsewhere, with the country watching cable shows or reading blogs that play to a specific audience......
There is another, even more radical shift in today's pop culture that is helping to undermine the Oscars and other tradition-bound award shows. For years, the Oscars have mattered because the awards served as a barometer of cultural heft. Just the name alone--the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences--has the air of high-minded authority.
Millions of moviegoers who would've been wary of seeing a challenging film like 1969's "Midnight Cowboy" or 1999's "American Beauty" caved in and plunked their money down, soothed by the academy's best picture badge of distinction.
But this elite, top-down culture is being supplanted by a raucous, participatory bottom-up culture in which amateur entertainment has more appeal than critically endorsed skill and expertise.......
This article has me thinking about its relevance to church. I was talking today with one of our pastors about how our church has seen a drop in involement in our "large events", whether it be our all church retreat or large worship events. The draw in the last couple of years has been for small, more intimate events. The church seems to be more niche oriented. I don't know if this is either good or bad. Maybe in the last 20 plus years we have really celebrated and pushed the large event, especially as we have made numbers a significant marker of the church's success.
I have also been noticing a swing in the church from a top-down culture, to a bottom-up culture. The role of the pastor does seem to be shifting.....Whereas he or she used to be the keeper or bearer of all information, teaching, preaching, truth, authority, etc....there now seems to be a growing shift where the pastor is not the controller of all these things, but rather there is a larger empowerment of the congregation and laity.
Just some quick hit thoughts after reading this article.......
Technorati Tags: Oscars, Los Angeles Times, church
Posted by rhett at March 5, 2006 10:50 PM
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Comments
Hi Rhett,
I was interested in your point about the pastoral shift of command. I have been studying this practically since I got saved because I entered into the C. Peter Wagner church stream. Peter Wagner, Chuck Pierce, Cindy Jacobs and other people out of that stream were major forerunners in realigning the positional authority of pastors and reintroducing the other four offices into the body of Christ(apostles, prophets, evangelists and teachers)
A book to recommend would be "Changing Church" by Peter Wagner, I feel that his views on this would accurately show the shift that you are talking about.
As church culture has become Americanized and we introduced a democratized way of voting and using that as our weighs and means for how we run organizations, we instead allowed the layperson to take charge of our church, relegating pastor's to a place of employment, when Biblically they were the shepherd's of the church.
When Christ talked about shepherd's it didn't say that the sheep would rise up agains the shepherd because that was unheard of. Because pastor's are supposed to be the ones setting the vision for a church, they need to be in more control. Laypeople for to long have been controlling the pulpit with threats and manipulation. By giving the pastor more control, it allows for a vision to flow and not be damned up by a pissed off layperson.
Will there still be problems? Of course, overzealous pastors who want to operate out of control, instead of relationship, have really marred the idea that pastor's should be in charge.
At my church, we operate out of a Board of Elders who oversee the spiritual aspect and direction of the church with the senior pastor; the board of trustees oversee the financial aspects with another pastor being the head of that. Now, that works for us and allows for decisions to really be made with counsel. I think that is the one thing that has caused "overseeing" pastors to fail and that is a lack of counsel. It is a balance but I wanted to comment on this and write more with you if you want.
Ben
Posted by: Ben Lemery at March 6, 2006 08:15 AM
I find it good...and inevitable. I think grabbing on board to this movement is essential and powerful for this culture.
I'm struggling through redefining church, as I recently experienced house church and found almost immediately a tight family, a place of comfort, but a place where everything I am is demanded of me.
Sunday morning at a megachurch almost completely loses the feel of community and the gifting of the congregation.
Is house church the way to go? How can the megachurches reinvent themselves to bring this same community and diversity of gifts?
Posted by: Jeremy Cramer at March 6, 2006 01:41 PM
Ben,
I too hope that "sheep" aren't rising up against "shepherds" from what was described as a bottom's up shift. But rather, I hope that we place faithful shephers over people...who minister...and who aren't about control and power and maniupulation which is often found in the pulpit.
rhett
Posted by: Rhett Smith at March 7, 2006 05:59 AM
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