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The image of the ocean liner Titanic (1912) superimposed to the cruise ship Oasis of the Seas (2009).

From Ocean Liner to Cruise Ship Skye Jethani in a blog post this week compared the modern mega-church to churches in the middle of the 20th century.

Why am I talking about the history of the shipping industry? Well, I think it’s a helpful parallel for what’s happened in the American church over the last 40 years. Around the same time that jetliners were causing waves for the shipping industry, cultural changes were also rocking the church. Prior to the 1960s most churches in America were small with a very utilitarian function–they transported people into communion with God by providing the basic necessities for living a Christian life.

But by the 60s and 70s the Baby Boomers grew up and many stopped going to church. The culture had changed–secular values, youth culture, and entertainment had taken root and the church could no longer compete. Traditional churches, built for utility, struggled. But like some ship owners at the time, entrepreneurial pastors began tinkering to see if a new purpose for the church could be found.

While I think this is a clever and insightful comparison, like all analogies it covers over some other things.

Prayer for Owen Meany I’m almost finished listening to John Irving’s novel A Prayer for Owen Meany. Most of the story is told in America during the Cold War which is when statistics for American church attendance reached its peak. One of the things I noticed within the context of the novel was the lost world of mainline American Christianity. People went to church not necessarily because they believed that strongly in God or Christianity but because it was simply something a morally upright, patriotic American would do. Americans in this period put “In God We Trust” on our money partly to contrast ourselves from the godless Communism in the USSR and China who were our threats and rivals. A number of people have noted that since the end of the Cold War the perceived threat has shifted from godless Communists to Islamic Fundamentalism the social motivation for church attendance has similarly evaporated. Maybe Skye should change his metaphor from a battleship to a cruise ship.

“Find a Need and Meet It, Find a Hurt and Heal It” Continue reading →