"Polishing the brass on the Titanic"

I was informed that I have not posted since Valentines Day. Well, that was good observation, Brad and Ron, thank you.

I'm sitting here in my office trying to think about how youth group should look in a church that is struggling. I made a commit to some people earlier that was a paraphrase from Fight Club (which I forgot to mention to them at the time). I asked them: "Do you ever feel like in your churches that you are polishing the brass on the Titanic?" This question got some laughs and got the answer yes.

I have had this basic conversation with a lot of people, and it is sad that we feel this way about our churches. Does this mean that the whole concept of the Church will be sinking to the deep with the Titanic? Has the church hit rock bottom? I mean there are still some churches that are doing well, but they seem like a minority.

In my church there has been a common question posed to me and just kind of in general a lot lately. How can we get young people in the church? The first answer I hear is a change of worship style. I guess that is way to go about it, and I think it might draw some more people in. I wonder though if style is less of an issue than actually worshiping when we come together. This isn't to say that every church is not worshiping, but I feel that most people don't really feel like anything has changed when they leave a worship service. I know I don't feel anything when I leave my church's worship.

I try to tell people that the young people in the world today value authenticity more than anything else. We want people to honestly say, I don't know. We want people to walk with us through questions without giving answers. You don't need to read Leonard Sweet or any other "post-modern" author to understand this. Just spend a few moments with a young person, and actually listen. We don't want answers. We don't want people to tell us what to do. We want people to walk with us and grow in an authentic relationship. We want to listen and talk, not just be talked to. Sermons don't work for most of us. We need time to discuss it or do something with it. We also want people to dress the way they always do, and not to be uptight when we show up in jeans to church. Authenticity works for dress as well as for relationships.

I know that changing things in a church is really hard to do, but it is also necessary. I also want everyone to realize that just because I'm saying that things should be different doesn't mean that I am comfortable with these changes. I grew up with worship looking a certain way. It is uncomfortable to change even for the young people. Those already in the church struggle with new things until they become more comfortable. This is how we work as humans. We are creatures of habit, and sometime we need to break those habits.

That's enough rambling for now!
Peace
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