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Holy Week resources and reflections

How is the church like a PC?

In a tech newsletter I read, two middle-aged colleagues addressed the end of the personal computer world they spent three decades mastering.

 

No more building PCs from scratch, no more tinkering with innards, no more fine-tuning the operating system. Nowadays PCs function like appliances. When a PC needs fixing, you take it to an expert or replace it with a new machine.

 

“The evolution of the PC industry over the last several years has not been good to the old-school PC professional, particularly for those whose careers have been heavily hardware-oriented,” said the writer.

 

Many church professionals are in exactly this position. The thing they know how to do, were trained to do and want earnestly to do better isn’t as important as it used to be and isn’t where they need to be devoting so much time.

 

I refer, of course, to leading Sunday worship.

 

Sunday worship isn’t growing churches any longer. For more and more people, Sunday morning has become a time for sleeping in, kid sports and shopping. Young prospects want engagement, not pew-sitting. Even older constituents are drifting away from what they consider to be stale.

 

Churches grow when they have active small group ministries, high-commitment mission work, lively online offerings and non-Sunday-morning activities.

 

Sunday worship should be part of the mix and done well, but it ends up getting in the way when older constituents remembering an earlier era demand that Sunday receive the greatest share of church resources, be the pastor’s number one commitment and be the ultimate measure of success.

 

Leaders who should be blogging, nurturing small groups, looking for ways like video to reach more people and using technology to pursue “touches” and “leads” find themselves under fire when they put anything ahead of Sunday worship.

 

Some of that resistance comes from pastors themselves. Many leaders believe deep down that their job is to stand up front on Sunday, to welcome the faithful, to lead them in prayer, song and sacraments, to preach with power and to send them out into the world refreshed and eager to serve.

 

It isn’t working; it probably never worked as much as we wanted. It certainly isn’t what Jesus envisioned. But this familiar Sunday life is what drew many into the ministry. This is what seminary taught them. This is what they find most rewarding. And this is what signs their paychecks.

 

The tech writer said he felt deep “sadness” when he read a colleague’s piece about losing all that the PC world had brought him: purpose, joy, expertise, marketplace value.

 

I think many church leaders feel that same sadness. When what you know how to do isn’t working, what do you do next?

 

Faith says there is new life after sadness. But will there be a job?

 

Next month: What, then, should church leaders be doing?

 

Tom Ehrich


TOM EHRICH is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is a founder of the Church Wellness Project churchwellness.com. His Web site is morningwalkmedia.com.

 

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