About a week ago, a mega-church pastor posted a portion of his sermon to Twitter (what are we calling it these days? X-er?).
In it, he said this1:
“It’s one of the things, honestly, that irritates me about you guys that cruise in 10 minutes late or leave 5 minutes before we dismiss. It’s not that I’m mad that you’re missing part of the service, it’s that you treat church like a religious show instead of a welcoming family that you’re a part of. When people say that the church is unfriendly, and it feels like a big production, you’re the problem.”
You can watch the clip here. The words are one thing, but the delivery brings this to a new level.
It went over how you would imagine most things do on social media. Which is to say, people doubled-down on what they previously believed to be true and it further divided the “Us” from the “Them”.
For good reasons and bad.
I have been all the characters in this narrative.
I’ve been the leader angrily sharing something in a very deliberate way to point out something (and someONES) I believed to be a huge problem.
I’ve been the supporter of the angry leader and their outburst and been the one who clapped and “Amen” ed and celebrated as words were shared that further isolated and demonized “Others” as “Them” while I sat comfortably amongst the “Us”, convinced the man of God was always right, by default.
I’ve been the outsider- the “Them” that has heard the words of a pastor or community group member painting people like me as the problem. I’ve felt the anger and shame that comes from being the target of an angry person’s outburst.
I’ve been the outside observer who is partially healed with just enough margin to push back against the hurtful words.
I’m aspiring to become a person who takes in something like this and is “Quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”2 I’m not there yet.
I have questions.
I’m curious about all the decisions that were made that ended up with that video clip being shared on social media. The sermon was written, it was preached, it was recorded, someone isolated a very specific portion of it, the person(Greear?) took that portion of the sermon and composed a Tweet that included that video clip, and they clicked “post.”
So many deliberate decisions were made.
I’m curious about that.
I’m curious about what they hoped would be the outcome.
Later that day when the Tweet was removed, Greear gave this explanation3:
That brings up so many more questions for me.
If this was “family talk” why did he share it publicly on Twitter?
If it was unhelpful “out of context” why did he take it “out of context” and share it?
Some day can we talk about how tricky it can be when pastors don’t just serve a local congregation, but because of book deals and speaking engagements they are “public figures.” The pastor isn’t just ministering to a local congregation that he knows and who knows him. When clips from a sermon are shared like this, they go way beyond the local congregation.
Is it the reader’s fault that they didn’t receive it with nuance when none was offered? I don’t know. Social media despises nuance.
I’ve been thinking about the anger I heard in that clip.
I’ve been known to Google things like “What is the relationship between anger and fear”? This is one of those times when I’m wondering if the anger that’s coming through is a more “safe” way of expressing fear.
Churches and pastors are struggling. Fewer folks are attending church. More people are criticizing pastors. And it’s true that many treat the weekly church gathering like a show to be consumed.
Maybe it’s fear because something is broken and he’s not sure how to fix it.
Maybe the fix is too costly to address. Too costly in regard to money, time, energy, power. . .
Our weekly worship gathering, for many of us, is in a room set up to look like a theatre. Some places use spotlights and smoke machines. There are green rooms. And for many, the Sunday morning experience is set up in a way that encourages the average person to come to watch someone else do something on a stage.
Greear’s right that this is a problem.
But I’d argue that “who” the problem is is much more complicated.
On this week’s episode of the Holy Post Podcast, Skye Jethani and Mike Erre had a conversation about this. Skye quoted Dallas Willard to sum up his thoughts:
“Your system is perfectly designed to yield the result you are getting.”4
I can’t point to one person or group whose fault this is. I don’t know who designed the system. Maybe if we can agree that that system is broken, we can do something about fixing it.
Let’s design a different system.
Lauren on Twitter: "This man…”pastor” putting on a religious show and then shaming the congregation for supposedly acting like it’s a religious show is my peak mega church experience my goodness. https://t.co/6TLJOCHRse" / X
James 1:19
J.D. Greear on Twitter: "Earlier I shared a clip from a sermon on James. It was part of a larger section on being quick to identify and reach out to disconnected people. An alone person in the church is an emergency, and Scripture calls us to be a welcoming community for those who feel isolated." / X
The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God, Dallas Willard
I agree with your “let’s design a different system”. I just had a super strong, visceral reaction to this quote. Again, of course like you mentioned with the caveats of I just read this vs watching the video and of course, taken out of context from the rest of his message.
My scattered but strong thoughts....it’s so easy for leaders from the stage to look out on the people coming in late, leaving 5 minutes early or even leaning over to whisper to their neighbor mid service and to pass judgement. I think a lot of the time this comes from the stresses and anxieties and insecurities of leadership.....or of course just toxic leadership
If church is truly a ‘welcoming family’ can we try to hold space for what MAY be going on that we can’t see or don’t know. Maybe the person sneaking in late was struggling to even walk through the doors of the church- maybe they have mental health struggles that cause crippling anxiety and it feels like a victory for them to just drag themselves into the church after struggling all morning with whether they could or not....if they heard this quote in the message would they turn red with embarrassment and give up, never to return to the church again? (Do we realize AA meetings will often sincerely embrace latecomers to the tune of “Joe, we’re so glad you’re here!”)
I have many many more thoughts but this topic fires me up. What would happen if Churches and church leadership made an effort to put down judgement and stress induced shaming of the flock in place of radical empathy and radical sincere love? 🤔
Many younger adults left years ago to avoid the ‘big show’, fed up. Here’s an old article, “Yet amidst this exodus, some church leaders have identified another movement as cause for hope: rather than abandoning Christianity, some young people are joining more traditional, liturgical denominations—notably the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox branches of the faith. This trend is deeper than denominational waffling: it’s a search for meaning that goes to the heart of our postmodern age.”