If there is anything we have learned from the pandemic, it ought to be that making things easier for our people is not the answer. Online services and Bible studies and zoom meetings and the like may be a partial substitute for being there when that is impossible but these are not the places we should be turning to in order to grow the Church or restore a broken Church. Exceptions are just that exceptions. They are for exceptional times when nothing else is possible. But after that it is time to put away the exceptional practices. Once I was a child but now I have grown up. So the Church ought to grow up. Technology can be a tool for a few things but it is not our future and it will not substitute for what was and always will be the way the Church grows, lives, and flourishes.
Neither will the Church grow with more conferences. Don't get me wrong. Some conferences are good for the purpose of engaging issues, teaching the teachers, and exploring how what we believe, teach, and confess stands up against what others believe, teach, and confess. I am all for conferences wherein pastors are encouraged in their good offices, renewed in the holy tasks of their calling, challenged to think theologically, and trained for the things that Seminary does not train you for. That is good, right, and salutary. But we cannot conference the Church into glory.
Imagine what would have happened if the apostles had the benefit of our technology and decided to have online services, podcasted sermons, zoom meetings, the photocopier, and programs taught at training conferences. I dare say that the Church would have fizzled and died and God would have had to replant His Church again. Would anyone have listened to the apostles if they held such conferences, spent all their money on slick advertising, published endless pamphlets, and held more and endless meetings? Was it their programs that caught the notice of the world but the fact that they were willing to die for their beliefs? Was it their finesse at promoting themselves and their cause that turned thousands into disciples or their courage in the face of persecution and threat? Was it their reasonableness and flexibility to enable people to find doctrines and a congregation that fit their preferences and personalities that built the Church into a mighty force within a century or two of Christ's death and resurrection or was it their confidence in the doctrine once given and faithfully preserved? Was it the personalities and training of those personalities to use all the technology and the lessons of psychology and sociology and marketing that turned this Jewish sect into a Church across nations and continents?
They held to the doctrine of the apostles, to the fellowship of Word and Sacrament, to a disciplined life of prayer, and did what God had called them to do even in the face of threat and opposition. Somehow, we have forgotten this. We have succumbed to the idea that technology is the savior of a moribund Church, that accommodation with the world will bring converts into the Kingdom, and that marketing the Gospel like a product (with endless consumer satisfaction surveys) will grow up the Church into something we can present to God with pride. This is what we did, Lord. Ain't it grand? We have forgotten the cardinal principle that it is His Church, it was His Church, and it will always be His Church. He has given us His Word. His Word brings forth faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. His Word calls His own to the waters of baptism where they are born anew, forgiven of their sins, and covered with Christ's righteousness. His Word addresses the penitent with absolution and the impenitent with warning and the call to repentance. His Word sets apart bread to be His body and wine to be His blood, imparting a foretaste of the eternal feast to come and nourishing us for the journey of faith in this mortal life. The Spirit is the force and power at work in all of these means of grace.
There is only one program or recipe for the growing and sustaining of God's people and His Church. That is the vigorous and faithful preaching and teaching of His Word. The faithful passing on of the sacred deposit once conferred delivered to the saints and handed down through the generations -- doctrine that does not change. The faithful administration of the Sacraments according to Christ's own institution. While there may be tools provided by technology to assist this, the technology is not the answer. While we may use what we have learned to be more efficient and effective in doing what God has called us to do, we are not marketers, programmers, or salesmen. While exceptional times may cause us to find ways we have not tried to do what we must, the exception cannot become the norm. Nothing we do online is a fit substitute for the gathering together of God's people in one place around His Word, Font, and Table. Until we learn that, we will be forever looking to program things for God and replace His Word and faithfulness to that Word with our own wisdom, efforts, and definition of success. If the Church goes down in a flame of glory by being faithful, it is God's to figure out but if the Church is lost because we took it over from Him and did it our way, we will have to answer for it.
1 comment:
Very fine message. I think, in many respects, things have become skewed in the church, including in our own Synod. Preaching needs to be more focused and deep, less suoergucial and centered around contemporary methods of evangelizing. The church is being drawn into one of the most dangerous times in American history. Unbelief is growing, immorality has replaced virtue, and the political and social upheaval of our times is causing doubt, confusion and anxiety. Getting back to the roots is what we need. The Gospel message of salvation needs to be shouted out, in the midst of a oerverse generation. Soli Deo Gloria.
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