I grew up in a church built in the late 1800’s, a beautiful, brick cathedral with a bell tower, tall stained-glass windows, massively high sanctuary ceiling and endless wood throughout. And yes, I actually found a picture of it! It was built in the days when church buildings were designed as “cathedrals”. It had a stately pulpit and a baptismal “hidden” by sliding wood doors that also served as the back-wall of the platform. Perched over the baptismal was the choir loft, complete with an impressive pipe organ.

So Much Has Changed in Churches Today

The Architecture has Changed

It’s amazing how much church construction has changed just in the last 40 years. Today, church buildings often look more like warehouses – at least the larger ones. Really, they’re constructed more like cinemas or theaters than churches. There’s no windows – and that’s by design. All the lighting is fully controllable, including spots.

Windows today are restricted to the lobby which is now the meeting area for congregants. We deliberately flood the lobbies with light to make it warmer, a place where you want to gather with others. Our lobbies include nooks for small gatherings and often serve Starbucks coffee, cold drinks and snacks.

It’s not just our lobbies that have radically changed. In prior times, the platform deliberately separated the Pastor(s) from congregants. In front of the platform was typically a place with “kneeling benches” where congregants came forward ceremonially for salvation or prayer. It was prior the meeting place, where congregants met with God. Today, platforms are often lined with steps providing full access for the Pastor to “step down” and speak at the same level as congregants.

The Music has Changed

Congregants are also no longer seated in pews, but often have theater seats with arm rests and adjustable seatbacks for comfort. There’s no longer hymnals with classics from ages past. Now it’s contemporary worship choruses that some complain are three chord melodies with three word lyrics. Everything is posted on big screens with colorful, fluid backgrounds that hypnotically “lead” the church in worship.

The music is much less formal, more warm and inviting – “love songs” to the Lord. No more organs or pianos. It’s keyboards, guitars, drums and sometimes saxophones. In times long ago, hymnal lyrics had deep meaning, intended to teach doctrinal truths to congregants who were often illiterate. Today, it’s more like a rock concert – a production intended to appeal to congregants and impress visitors with our professionalism. Our music has become a theatrical production.

The “Presentation” of our Church to Others has Changed

This is not so surprising. About forty years ago, churches began to invest in large theatrical productions for Easter and Christmas. Each year the productions had to exceed the prior year, leading to expensive and elaborate sets, live animals – even Santa on a Harley! It’s no surprise the music and worship followed.

Now it’s expanded to every part of our services. Professionally written sermons with light-hearted jokes and a culturally relevant “word” that everyone can relate to, something reassuring and encouraging. Today’s sermons are not the classic doctrinal defenses of earlier times. They are more like “Christianized self-help”. They often sound like a military recruiting video: “Be all you can be in Jesus! Christians get more done before 10 a.m. than most people get done all day!” Everything seems to have yielded to theatrics.

We have professional courses offered by professional teachers employing professionally published books – a real money-maker for professional Pastors. There’s even professional seminars and professional retreats for men, women, couples, youth – all of them so inspiring. Guaranteed to “Change your Life”!

Congregational Participation has Changed

It used to be that congregants volunteered in churches as teachers, youth leaders, group leaders – you name it. It seemed most everything was handled by church members. Not any more. Now we have professional Pastors paid to lead virtually every type of ministry imaginable. Such important ministries cannot be left to amateurs.

What’s interesting is how congregational participation has changed. It used to be that members were expected to minister. Now members are now expected to participate only in worship. Stand, sing, wave your arms, jump up and down, clap and shout. It’s what a friend of mine calls “Happy, clappy church”. And yes, there are times it seems we’ve become clap-happy. There’s an expectation we’re going to clap, even about the smallest and most mundane of things. Yes, our “participation” is part of the theatrics!

But it leaves me wondering how invested members are in our churches. It used to be that only a small number were truly invested in their local church. It seems now it’s becoming less and less. Church is not where you go to serve, it’s where you go to be served. Maybe I’m just “old school”, but that seems inverted!

In the End, Only our Marketing has Changed

It used to be we tried to impress people with our grandiose, professional architecture. Now it’s with our professional productions. It used to be we tried to impress people with our doctrinal defenses of truth. Now we try to impress with culturally relevant, professional self-help sermons.

It seems only the thing that’s changed is the way we market ourselves. In the end, though called to evangelize, much of church work inevitably brings competition for congregants. It forces us to market ourselves, to seek ways to impress non-members to attend our services.

Christ, the Master-Marketer and Theatrical-King

It brings an interesting dilemma. Christ routinely employed theatrics. Crowds followed Him as He healed people (Matthew 12:15; 14:14; John 5:13), made the blind to see (Matthew 12:22) and lame to walk (Matthew 11:5). He also carefully “choreographed” important sayings to align with Hebrew holidays (John 5:1; 7:37-38). His death on the cross on Passover was a master stroke.

But Christ’s “theatrics” were deliberately designed to reveal to His people that He was the promised Messiah. His miracles also revealed the Father’s power and love. The singular reason for His “theatrics” was the redemption of our fallen race, and most notably, those of our race considered of no value.

And Christ didn’t market like we market in the church. He didn’t compete for the saved. He came for the lost (Mark 2:17). And He was unafraid to speak the truth even when it drove the crowds away (John 6:60-66).

He was no professional, though He and His disciples changed the world more than all of history’s professionals. He built no buildings, but built the church. He wrote no books but was the Word. He is the king of kings but His kingdom is not of this world. Though King of kings, He was a servant who gave His life that others might gain life.

Re-Thinking our Marketing & Theatrics

How different Christ’s way was from our way. We should not be deceived. These simple touch-points show how far we are from Christ’s way. The church has pursued a different path from Christ. Our focused attempts to impress others run counter to Christ who was the epitome of unimpressive (Isaiah 53:2). Our desire to project power, respectability and relevance also run counter to Christ whose words and teachings were ever other-worldly, and too often misunderstood or mysterious.

Our attempts to re-brand ourselves, change our marketing strategies and pursue “relevance” have all failed. Attendance continues to drop in churches nationally. It should be our first clue that we’re lacking relevance, that we’re not getting through.

The book of Acts shows how the early church essentially performed all the same miracles Christ performed. Their ministry truly reflected the ministry of their Master. That is hardly the case today. More than that, Acts claims the church grew despite widespread persecution, a truth that stands in opposition to the church today, which is shrinking despite widespread religious freedom. Most important, church tradition records that Christ’s disciples, like their Master, were all martyred for their faith (with John the exception who was “spiritually martyred” through exile).

The evidence is clear. No amount of church rebranding, marketing or theatrics will prove effective – apart from a true re-duplication of Christ’s power and love, manifest in His life and death. In this regard, the church may be its own worst enemy. Our failure is simply an unwillingness to be conformed to His image.