NEWS FEATURE: `Bowling alone,’ `refrigerator rights’ and new churches

c. 1998 Religion News Service ALPHARETTA, Ga. _ What might”road rage,””the bowling alone syndrome”and”refrigerator rights”have to do with starting new churches? For C. Jeff Woods they are critical cultural phenomena that must be understood by anyone seeking to start a new congregation and reaching the unchurched in society. Woods, the executive minister of American Baptist […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

ALPHARETTA, Ga. _ What might”road rage,””the bowling alone syndrome”and”refrigerator rights”have to do with starting new churches?

For C. Jeff Woods they are critical cultural phenomena that must be understood by anyone seeking to start a new congregation and reaching the unchurched in society.


Woods, the executive minister of American Baptist Churches of Ohio who has served a number of years as a Baptist pastor throughout the Midwest, is a futurist and author of the popular book,”Congregational Megatrends”(Alban Institute).

In a recent speech to a group of Southern Baptist moderates _ Friends of New Churches _ about what trends must be analyzed by Baptists wanting to start new congregations, Woods said while”the gospel is not brand new in America … for many of our churches, their community is brand new.”Why not take a congregation out into its community during the Sunday morning worship hour, to see what kinds of people are not in church, and see what they are really doing at 11 o’clock on Sunday?”he asked.

According to Woods, such a research project will quickly uncover some of the 15″cultural changes”he said are impacting how people live and how they respond to the gospel message.

Among the most important of those trends, Woods said, is the”bowling alone syndrome,”a phrase used by sociologist Robert Putnam to describe what he believes is the break-up of civil society and the retreat from participation in voluntary associations.”Research done by the American Bowling Congress indicated that more people are bowling than ever, but they are bowling alone,”Woods said.”The number of bowling leagues is actually declining dramatically. What does this say?”It says people will bowl when they feel like it, when the mood strikes them, not when they are scheduled to be there. The Lone Ranger mentality overrides the team mentality. `I’ll do it my way, when I feel like it’ lets them avoid the duty and obligation and responsibility of being part of a team. That mentality must be understood if you are contemplating starting a new church.” Woods also pointed to what he called the phenomenon of”refrigerator rights”as an indicator of contemporary behavior.”How many people do you know who feel welcome to come into your home, go to your refrigerator and get a glass of cold water without asking? Not many, huh? Well, that also says much about our modern lifestyles. Understand that reality and you can know more about the people who need your Christian message.” Another trend frequently commented on by sociologists _ the so-called”road rage”phenomenon _ Woods said reveals the sense of powerlessness felt by many in contemporary society.”They feel that nothing they touch responds to their control _ not their spouses, not their children, not their careers. The only thing which responds to their control _ over which they have full power _ is an automobile. So when they get behind the wheel, all their frustrations boil up and road rage results.” Each of these sociological labels, he said, demonstrates that change on a large scale runs throughout society and must be dealt with or people will not hear the content of the Christian message.”For example, I am told that every day more than 200 prayers go up to the (Western) Wall in Jerusalem via the Internet. That’s astounding news to a 60-year-old Christian in America, but hardly news at all to a Generation X-er,”he said.”The challenge for a new church is to make Jesus seem new to the people all around them,”he said.”New churches should adopt a new language from their inception, always shifting the paradigm. … We need to take extra time to learn from people who were not raised in traditional churches, and from non-traditional thinkers in other fields as well.” New churches, he said,”must treat people as if they have absolutely no knowledge of your church, your faith or your denomination _ because they probably don’t.” (OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY MAY END HERE.)

Another speaker at the Friends of New Churches meeting was Gary Webber, associate pastor of Milford Baptist Church in Marietta and an expert on worship styles.”It is totally unnecessary for every church to have the same style of worship, especially if they are close to each other,”he said.”It is not the story you use, but the style you use.” Webber said the”battle”in many churches”is over the question of Christian worship versus Christian entertainment. In most of our churches, we build our buildings and set up our sanctuaries for entertainment, then demand that staffs lead us in worship. But we don’t like to admit that.” He urged new churches to note popular trends in TV news reporting and commercial announcements.”Talking heads don’t give us the news anymore,”Webber said.”TV anchors don’t sit behind desks and read news reports now; they get out in the field and give on-the-spot reports. “And they don’t give long reports. Talking heads don’t communicate with a generation raised on MTV, where no image stays on the screen longer than 10 seconds. And radio and TV stations are selling commercial time for as little as 10 or 20 seconds. You simply can’t hold some people’s attention very long. That speaks loudly to traditional worship styles in our churches.” According to Webber, preachers need to be actors today.”Every preacher should be required to take acting classes in seminary _ not to put on a show, but to clearly communicate the biblical stories to modern listeners.” At the same time, he cautioned, the line between worship and entertainment”gets thinner and thinner. That line must be preserved.”

DEA END HARWELL

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