The challenge of ministry in traditional churches

So much of ministry depends on traditions. Older pastors, like myself, were taught to do ministry a certain way that may have applied to people in previous generations and in previous contexts. I recently blogged about ridding my library of a lot of books. Many of them reflected the thinking of the past and were really outdated for the 21st century. (Some were outdated for the 20th century!) When I told someone I had tossed them into a dumpster I was asked why I didn't give them to a young pastor starting out. I responded that they would be of no value to that young pastor or to the church he or she might lead.

Existing churches struggle to find pastoral leadership, especially smaller and mid-size churches. One reason for this difficulty is that many younger pastors want to serve in more non-traditional settings. They feel led to new church planting to avoid the growth-limiting traditions found in many existing churches. Some are drawn to churches after the planter leaves to start another church. Few desire to go to a 150 year old church with few or no young people. Others are unwilling to deal with the challenges of ministering to three or four generations who have different expectations of their minister. We may not agree with their thinking, but it is the reality that older, existing churches face.

Pipe organs, hymnbooks, liturgies, denominational Sunday school literature still meet a need for some people, but the numbers of those people decrease every year. One church with two services each Sunday, one contemporary and one traditional, see fewer numbers each year in the traditional service. A gentleman I know who attends the traditional service in that church asked me once what they could do to see that service grow in attendance. I responded that no one in that service is having babies, so the only way I knew of was for them to begin inviting their unchurched friends. He was not encouraged because his circle of friendships was growing smaller each year, and the ones who were left all attended churches. I imagine this story could be said of many churches.

I have read one church growth person who suggested that churches should close down after 50 years. I can understand his reasoning, but I don't think it's necessary. What is necessary is that churches, and pastors, may need to reinvent themselves to better reach the younger generations. This will impact how we preach, the music we use in worship, our worship styles, the way we structure the church, its outreach and discipleship ministries, and virtually every system in the church. Traditions that limit our ministry effectiveness need to be abandoned. Other traditions can be used as foundations upon which we can build new ways of doing ministry that will impact people's lives and the Kingdom of God.