You may have come across talk of the shifting cultural tide. Perhaps you have heard people speak about the pull back to the church for many unchurched people. There does seem to be something of a draw towards the church, particularly among Zoomers.
For a long time, churches have thought about how to attract people back through the doors. Various creative ways have come and gone. Various trends started and then stopped. But it seems the churches that are attracting people at the moment are the, well, fairly churchy ones. Which is interesting.
A while ago now – long enough that it is now a bit old hat but was once considered trendy – churches were doing their level best to shed any sense of churchiness. Let’s do cafe church and be a bit more like a cafe than a church (one of the here and now gone trends). Let’s do messy church and be unstructured and unchurchy (another trend heard about less these days). Let’s get rid of rows and sit round tables. Let’s stop the upfront monologue and have more socratic discussions. Let’s change all the old hymns out for modern soft-rock and pop-style songs. On and on the things went. If people are put off by what is churchy let’s shed anything that is churchy. Simples.
But isn’t it interesting that as people are coming back, largely of their own volition, they are drawn to the churchy kind of churches. Not necessarily super-traditional, super high church stuff. There is some of that, for sure. But equally, people seem drawn to some of the churches that – even if more informal in their style of dress and their forms – nevertheless do all the kind of churchy things you’d expect a church to do. In fact, we’ve seen some who have been drawn specifically because they want a church that reads from the Bible, preaches a substantial sermon from the Bible, prays and sings with words in line with the Bible and then does communion is a way that corresponds to the Bible. They aren’t hung up on the forms, but they are concerned about the elements that you’d expect to exist in a church. They don’t want a weird church that doesn’t feel like a church at all; they want a kind of churchy church that feels like a church because they’re being drawn to, well, a church!
None of this is to say well done to those churches that have insisted on remaining stuck in the 1950s. People aren’t necessarily being drawn to suits, ties and old-fashioned culture. But it is to say, the churches that went to great lengths to feel as unlike churches as possible are not what many are being drawn to either. They are being drawn – whether to Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist or other Independent churches – to churches that function like churches. To churches that do the kind of things they expect churches to do. To churches that are, in some sense, kind of churchy.
And when you stop and think about it, that makes some sense. After all, it is quite jarring if – in going to a hospital for an operation – the place you walk into feels closer to a pub. It might be familiar to you as a surrounding, but it would be both surreal and feel a bit like you had come to the wrong place. You might well like the pub, but you weren’t looking for a pub. You wanted the hospital. I am pretty sure the same thoughts go through people’s heads when they wander into churches that have gone to great lengths to feel like anything but a church. You may well like the thing they are aping; but you weren’t looking for a cafe. You wanted a church.
People expect the church to be churchy. If they are looking for a church, they want it to feel a bit like a church too. What is particularly exciting is that the Lord appears, despite all our efforts and programmes and attempts to dechurchify everything, determined to bring some people back to the more churchy churches. I don’t think that is necessarily because God is putting his stamp of approval on one and not the others. Rather, I think it is the Lord’s way of saying it is all in his hand, he does not particularly need our innovations and the things of church will do just fine.