“What if?” is a Disney+ series that takes well-known characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and changes one thing to create an alternative timeline, such as “What if Peggy Carter was the one who became Captain America?” Likewise, this series at Hacking Christianity asks “What if” in novel approaches to persistent questions about church growth and vitality. We may recoil at first but might find ourselves drawing nearer to the idea. Take a read on this idea from a guest author and ask yourself…well, what IF?
What if…we quit offering United Methodist Worship?
Rev. Kathy Neary
WE MEASURE WHAT WE DO
Every year the dreaded “annual reports” for churches must be filled out and filed by every congregation in the United Methodist universe. Every year a “hue and cry” is raised about how “average worship attendance” is a terrible metric for measuring the vitality of congregations. It’s funny how this metric only became problematic as our average worship attendance numbers dropped precipitously.
Instead of facing the reality of our decline in worship attendance, we have sought to substitute this metric with other less frightening and more malleable numbers. We now ask churches how many people are served by ministries of the church, like food banks or shelters run out of church basements. These numbers are famously inflated so we can feel good about something (anything) happening in our buildings. The number we really pay attention to is average worship attendance. Measuring average worship attendance is an indication of what we value, what we believe is our purpose, and what we do.
The “average worship attendance” metric measures exactly what we do. The de facto purpose of most churches is to produce Sunday morning worship. Our buildings are designed for this: they are built to center our attention and efforts on this one activity of Sunday morning worship. The primary–almost exclusive–function of a pastor in most churches is to plan and lead Sunday morning worship. When SPR committees are asked what skills they want in a pastor, the number one answer is they want a preacher to deliver effective, engaging, entertaining sermons (I hold out hope that district superintendents ask the follow-up question: why?). A pastor might be skilled in community outreach, administrative work, pastoral care, or evangelism, but woe be unto her if she can’t entertain a congregation for 15 minutes each Sunday morning.
Church budgets reveal the truth of this focus on Sunday morning worship. The two biggest expenses for most congregations are the preacher and the building, which is designed primarily for worship. These facts lead us into a tailspin of despair about the future of the United Methodist Church. Our thinking goes down this rabbit hole: “Our purpose is to produce Sunday morning worship. We measure if we do this well by counting people who attend worship. Our measurements indicate we have fewer and fewer people in worship, no matter what we do. Therefore, let’s stop counting worship attendance. It makes us sad.” We can’t get away from this reality though.
If our purpose is to produce Sunday morning worship, assessing average worship attendance is a great metric for measuring success. The numbers tell us…we are not succeeding.
WE COULD FOCUS ON DISCIPLESHIP GROWTH
I would like to suggest that we go back to asking ourselves what our purpose is supposed to be, and how we might accomplish that purpose. Our purpose is to foster discipleship in people who will then transform the world. We need to be clear about what discipleship is, and how we grow disciples. Lots of possible answers here, but the hard fact is this: Sunday morning worship does not foster discipleship growth of any kind.
Discipleship is defined as a life of deepening our relationship with God and Christ, and living out of that amazing, loving, empowering, transforming relationship with our neighbors. Relationships are built through intimate, honest, open encounters with God and others, such as might happen in small group settings or private contemplation. Relationships are built through shared struggles for justice, such as might happen in direct action campaigns for climate justice. Relationships are built when we give, receive, and honor the stories of each other’s lives. Relationships like these are not built through Sunday morning worship.
If we focus our activities and energy on relationship-building activities and not Sunday morning worship, we might begin to see discipleship growth in our communities.
BE BOLD: QUIT UNITED METHODIST WORSHIP SERVICES
I once suggested at a district meeting, and in front of the presiding bishop, that if people had not been transformed after a lifetime of attending worship at their local church they should quit the church. It did not go over well. I now realize that I should have given that statement a bit of nuance, so here it is: United Methodist congregations should stop offering Sunday morning worship.
I understand that worship does offer us some needed benefits. People can experience the grace of God in a special way, especially during the administration of the sacraments. People can be shaped by and learn from the sharing of a common story. People can learn of current social needs, pray about them, and plan a response. I don’t want to give up on these benefits of worship. But we Methodists don’t seem to be able to do two things well at once: focus on fostering discipleship and have Sunday morning worship. We must prioritize fostering discipleship, so that means we need an alternative for that Sunday morning worship.
The way around this challenge is to send United Methodists to other churches to get their worship fix, and then focus on discipleship growth the rest of the week in the United Methodist gathering place. There is precedent for this approach. In England and the American colonies of the 18th century, the people called Methodists didn’t have their own church buildings. Methodists were not organized into an official church denomination. Instead, the people called Methodists met in small groups, and on Sundays attended a nearby established church, often the local Anglican Church. There they could receive communion, be inspired or terrified by the preaching, and share a bit of fellowship with their non-Methodists neighbors. The real work of growing as disciples occurred outside this Sunday morning worship experience. (Of course, the American Revolution put an end to this arrangement in the U.S., and much to our detriment, Methodists began building their own churches and became “just like everyone else.”)
In many places today there are non-United Methodist churches that offer wonderfully inspiring and uplifting worship, with some even offering good preaching. I suggest people look for a “high church” option if they are seeking a mystical, awe-inspiring, ritual-heavy experience. The people called Methodists should get their “worship fix” on Sunday in another church, and then get back to work on discipleship growth the rest of the week in the United Methodist gathering place.
There will be plenty of opportunities for this work at the local United Methodist gathering place because everyone, the pastor included, will be focused solely on discipleship growth activities. Everyone at the United Methodist gathering place will be focused on being transformed by a deepening relationship with God and Christ, and living out that transformed life for the sake of others.
Kathy Neary is an elder in the PNW Conference. She has served as a campus pastor (Washington State University), as pastor of 6 local church charges, and as a pastor for 2 interim ministry appointments. She is currently the small church consultant for the PNW Conference.
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Interesting but it seems in some ways that you have set up your scenario to be answered with the new hip thing to do.
You mention what SPR asks of pastors with a smirk as though they only wish to be “entertained.” Thus you set up a strawman for your solution to tear down. When you noted that ” Sunday morning worship does not foster discipleship growth of any kind” you left it with the assumption that there was no correlation or answer.
Since the times of the Apostles we have met together on Sunday mornings to build the church through the Word and the Cup. Just because we are failing to do that does not mean that we should throw the baby out with the wash water.
Perhaps if the worship service became more ot the building of the Saints and not an entertainment to keep inquirers we would real disciple growth and a real increase in ministry in the local church.
But then that goes against the narrative that you seem to esouse.
Hi John,
Thanks for your comments. You mention that “since the time of the Apostles we have met together on Sunday mornings…” Our Methodist history tells a different story. The people called Methodists originally were focused on experiencing the grace of God during the week, through small group gatherings, charity work, and social change activities. John Wesley was perfectly happy when the people called Methodists attended the Anglican Church, and even encouraged people to receive communion on a more regular basis. However his focus for his ministry was to help people live as disciples of Jesus, all the time, in all the ways they could. I am advocating for a similar emphasis now in the United Methodist Church. Methodists can attend other Christian churches to listen to the Word preached and receive the sacraments, but their uniquely Methodist focus should be on living as disciples during the rest of the week.
Thanks for that. I still like the idea of turning churches into apartment complexes. That could foster discipleship through daily contact and common goals.
I agree that Sunday morning attendance is a poor metric. Many young people who I had as Sunday School students are no longer interested in spending an hour in church on Sunday morning, but would step up to help serve a meal or distribute goods to the needy.
It’s possible that having no church meeting at all would lead people to seek other tangible ways to practice their faith.
Hi Deb,
Thanks for your comments. I think you are right that people want to experience the life of discipleship more than learn about the tenets of discipleship. Both are important but we must start with experience if we are to help connect people to God’s grace. The “book learning” will come later for most people.
I like this piece very much.
Years ago, I wrote an essay, Who is the Customer?, that makes some of these same points in a different way. I’m retired now, but I hope the essay might be helpful if someone else wants to use them in their own thinking, writing, or practice.
Here’s a link to the text:
https://1drv.ms/w/s!Ag4zgrXm7keYgac44CaKxR4YLDfPcA?e=xnCuRM
An excerpt:
Although “quality control” in Sunday morning presentation and the development of word-of-mouth advertising may be important, congregations should first address the question of the quality of the disciple they are producing. Is the average disciple from our congregations recognizably different from other folks? In a culture that is relatively distrustful of institutions, the Church is simply not convincing in its claims to be life-changing, when every Sunday it sends forth its products into the world to resume their identities as persons no different from others.
The counter-claim that Christians are not perfect, just forgiven, carries no weight with those whose sense of guilt is either non-existent or assumed to be part of a more general existential anxiety. Until congregations become communities that consistently produce faithful disciples, the Gospel message will have increasingly limited appeal.
Another excerpt:
Unfortunately, in some cases “faithful disciple” is taken to mean one who lives out a narrowly construed set of pietistic rules and judgmentally attempts to impose such rules on others. Such “disciples” inspire only defensiveness in those who are seeking to live more fully. The Church must carefully guard against this trap as it seeks to produce faithful disciples.
Faithful disciples are persons who reveal the fruits of the Spirit in their lives. They are persons who live with integrity. They reveal a peace and joy that is not superficial. They are forgiving and patient. They act in love. They admit when they are wrong. They listen. They are generous. These are familiar themes. These and other qualities of character are revealed in Scripture and affirmed by Tradition as at least some of the qualities Christians ought to have. Suffice it to say that persons who live this sort of life generate an interest in what the Gospel has to offer. A community of such persons would be a magnet for those seeking wholeness and peace.
These virtues do not develop by accident. Just as athletes, musicians, and other skilled persons must practice, so that performing appropriately becomes “second nature,” Christians need to practice spiritual disciplines in order to train themselves to act and respond to situations in Christlike ways. Christians need to conscientiously avail themselves of the means of sanctifying grace in order to develop the virtues that mark faithful disciples. Once these virtues — these holy habits — are developed, then to do the right thing becomes the easy thing, to do the wrong thing becomes the difficult thing.
Where is the evidence that the typical congregational program of weekly worship, Sunday School for a few, midweek Bible Study or Prayer Meeting for even fewer, and regular personal devotions for fewer still, consistently produces the kind of faithful discipleship the Church requires in the missionary context it now finds itself? It is the production end of the business that needs significant attention and development, not the marketing department.
Thinking of a congregation as an enterprise to satisfy the perceived needs of persons who are simply consumers of religious or spiritual services is an attractive idea, but a serious mistake. We will be better able to separate the wheat of sound congregational practice from the chaff of trendy accommodation if we keep in mind the fundamentally productive nature of the Church’s mission.
People are indeed hungering and thirsting after God. The Church needs to demonstrate by its production of faithful, mature Christians that it can facilitate the satisfaction of that hunger and thirst. The Church demonstrates that capacity by actually doing it. We no longer live in a world in which people assume they need to have an affiliation with a religious institution.
Dear Rev. McNeill,
Thank you for sharing your essay. I found myself agreeing with your well reasoned points. I’m wondering if you might share when and where it was written?
I wrote it for the Christian Century, but they didn’t accept it. I think I originally wrote it in the late 90s or early 00s. I had my students read it when I taught evangelism at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School in Rochester NY around 2009-12. If you know of Bryan Stone (Evangelism after Christendom) you’ll pick up some similarities to his work as well, but I wrote this before I knew of him. I think Stone is really important, by the way. Happy to continue conversation by email: johnwmcn at gmail.
Kathy, thank you for this insightful thought piece. As a life-long attendee (no longer a member) of the United Methodist Church) I find your question intriguing. I connect it with a book I read recently titled “Do I Stay Christian” by Brian D. McLaren, which presents an argument for “No” an argument for “Yes,” and if so “How.” My reason for resigning my membership in the UMC is related to the stance the denomination has taken on ordination of LGBTQ persons who wich to serve in ordained ministry. I could easily support doing away with Sunday worship in favor of more intentional efforts at building community among people of all walks of life.
“We Measure What We Do,” says the bold print. But isn’t it also, “We do what we measure”? As the business leadership world says, “What gets measured gets managed,” or “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” (A misquote of W. Edwards Deming, that gets his meaning almost backward. His line is “It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”) The more measurement is emphasized, the more we are pressured to plan & program toward getting better numbers on the things measured (especially if there are dollar signs involved). But worship attendance figures, or monetary contributions, aren’t best thought of as goals, but as by-products of doing the work of discipleship development. Otherwise, we tend to be pushed toward consumer-preference-driven worship and treasurer-driven stewardship, rather than worship & stewardship as expressions of a community of disciples. (Deming again: “Management by results — like driving a car by looking in rear view mirror.”)
So, what might we measure instead of attendance? How about practices of discipleship, under the general headers of our Baptismal Covenant: prayer, participation, generosity, service, and witness? And what do we do when we discover that we can’t measure discipleship? That’s what I wanted to do a few years back, with an annual pastoral interview with each member — with a narrative element, and with quantification of members’ level of satisfaction with their practice, their growth goals, and how the church might support them in their growth — but it was just too cumbersome to pull off >>while also planning worship & preaching for every Sunday.<<
Thanks for a fertile-ground column.
Maybe a return to the liturgy of the early church and hymns written in Old English before 1800 would appeal to people. You can get contemporary worship at any non-denominational outfit. Maybe offering something more regal and sober would appeal to those who are sick of the concert church services.
Michael, thanks for your insights. Rather than the words “more regal and sober”, I might have used the words; ‘respectful’, ‘awe-inspiring’, ‘worshipful’ but I struggle with the ‘nightclub entertainment spectacles’ that are allowed to pass as “making God the subject and object of worship time”. Our time “getting together to show each other Christ”, as C.S. Lewis defined church, needs to be more than ‘7/11 music’ (the same seven phrases repeated eleven times) and cotton-candy(it looks really attractive but in a few seconds you are left with a sickeningly sweet aftertaste and hot air).
I always thought that the real heart and soul of a church is in the small groups: the weekly studies, chior rehearsals, food kotchens, etc.
In fact, didn’t Wesley organize the people called Methodists in small classes of no more than a dozen people- small enough to be accoutable to each other?
Maybe attendence in those small groups would be a more appropriate metric for United Methodists today.