I heard a most disturbing story on NPR this morning involving one of my favorite sports: NASCAR. Now I realize that to many of us northeasterners, NASCAR is hardly considered a "sport". I mean how athletic must you be to sit behind the wheel of a car driving around a circular track? Well, in defense of those drivers, you and I probably wouldn't even make it once around the track without hitting the wall. And then add to that, other cars riding inches away from your bumper at 180 miles per hour? Good luck with that.
NPR reported this morning that NASCAR is now beginning to experience a decline in both attendance and viewership around the country. Sound familiar? For many years, the sport of NASCAR racing has been one of the most popular ones, even attracting presidential candidates desperately seeking to show us how they're just plain ordinary Americans. Now even major television networks are picking up on this trend and are beginning to re-evaluate their desire for NASCAR contracts. CBS is walking away from NASCAR altogether. For reasons that are not entirely apparent to me, we as a culture are beginning to move beyond the need for speed. Perhaps in the age of technology, we are no longer stimulated by just watching cars go around a track like we did thirty years ago. Maybe for some its just become too expensive to fuel up the RV and take a few days to enjoy the NASCAR festivities. Maybe our culture's obsession with cars is being supplanted by an obsession with I-Phones and Androids. Why else would texting while driving be at epidemic levels? Maybe NASCAR appeals to mostly white males who as a demographic are declining in number.
Whatever the reasons for the decline in NASCAR's popularity, one thing is for certain. The culture in which we live is very different from the culture of twenty or even thirty years ago. Times are changing. Is NASCAR?
Now substitute "church" for "NASCAR" and this question hits even closer to home. Times are changing. Is the church?
At the formation of Incarnate Word in 1961, mainline Protestant churches were the cultural religious establishment, as such, they relied on a sense of obligation as a powerful motivator for membership. They were the only game on Sunday morning. Attending church, having your children baptized and sending them to Sunday School were obligations you were supposed to fulfill. Over time a sense of complacency set in as church leaders and others assumed the church had a guaranteed place and constituency. In 1961, the era of Christendom was alive and well fueled by a sense of civic faith that said, if you were a good American, you were a good Christian and you were in church.
Times have changed and so has our culture. An unpopular war in Vietnam, assassinations of prominent leaders and the scandal of Watergate helped erode a sense of trust in society's institutions, the church among them. Moreover with the implementation of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, our culture became more racially, ethnically and religiously diverse. No longer did the assumptions of civic faith hold true that to be a good American was to be a Christian who attended church every week. No longer taking for granted that folks will simply show up on our doorsteps ready to join us in church, we've had to reassess the church's purpose and its relationship with the world around it. We've had to re-examine what it is to be the church in a post-modern, pluralistic and inter-connected world.
The culture around us has changed. Have we? The adaptive challenges that face us today compel us to re-examine our own congregational culture and assumptions. Gone are the days when "membership" had its privileges. Those outside our church walls are no longer "joiners". They are "seekers": Looking for healing, transformation and purpose. Are we offering that?
The life and death choice facing the church today is clear: Do we lament the changes around us yearning for a return to the good ol' days, or do we adapt to them? The church that adapts to these cultural challenges; that sees them not as threats but as new opportunities to tell and re-tell its story of a God in love with the world, is the church that is going to live another day bearing witness to the timeless story of a God whose love and healing in Jesus Christ knows no end.
Just sayin'...
Pastor Doug
