“It’s called BEING the church!” The more we do to revitalize it, the more flaccid it often becomes. Many church observers would probably agree that some (but not all) of our most widely-touted “fixes” and innovations for the church failed to do much, cost a lot of money, and caused discord among many traditionalists—that’s probably a good thing.

“Up through the ground came a bubblin’ crude…” Baby-boomer church, Seeker-driven church, Seeker-sensitive church, Purpose-driven church, Worship-evangelism church, Church of small groups, Cell church, Gen X church, Postmodern church, Missional church. Like Jed Clampett’s  fortuitous “black gold” finding, the church’s life would never be the same…or?

Fellow blogger, Brian Jones, recently reminded me that we’ve been in a revolving door of change in the Evangelical church over the past long (short) 35 years. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…or is there? We have been reformed and reforming, and reforming, and reforming…

Boomer Church

The Rolling Stones and sort of a “drug store” Elvis snuck in the backdoor of many churches 35 years ago. We called it “folk worship” to start, but it quickly became what we affectionately call “happy clappy” worship. It was fun and well meant, but never approached the actual zest of the  Boomer culture—though it was kind of wicked to be doing it at church—of all places!

Seeker Driven (later, Seeker Sensitive) Church 

We can thank our friends at Willow Creek for teaching us how to do this. Essentially it was Boomer Church with some drama mixed in…oh, and much cooler outfits and, thank heaven, a lot of original music played with a really hot band.

We learned that nobody (well, almost nobody) likes organs or choirs, because those things were dead and should have been buried long ago—we just needed to get on with it.

I thought it was cool.

Note: Even though Bill Hybels told us NOT to do it, we all went home from his conferences and tried to do “it” at our 100 year old institutions. Of course, everyone immediately accepted the change…NOT!

The Purpose Driven Church 

Forty Days of Purpose was remarkably effective for at least, well…forty days, then it was a bit of a mixed bag for many churches. Sometimes formulas work and sometimes…

I learned a lot that I thought I already knew!

Worship-evangelism Church

Sally Morgenthaler reminded us that the Holy Spirit, through worship, might be more “attractional” than any device we had put in place. (I read her book faster and with more enthusiasm than any worship book I had read in the previous 10 years!.)

Failed model? I sure hope not!

Church of Small Groups and the Cell Church

Both of these marginally successful attempts to revitalize the church were meant to break up the “big box” (monolithic) style of the growing Evangelical churches. It was a great idea but met with a lot of resistance from people who liked their full-service, “coffee in the lobby” institutions. It was a hard sell item too for people who didn’t want to “share feelings,” or just liked hiding in the convivial confines of their church communities. Alliterate that!

Personnaly, I like telling everybody everything…probably not a good idea.

Gen X Church and the Postmodern Church

Again, the church tried to identify generational distinctives and capitalize on the data pouring out in books, articles, and conferences. Brian McLaren (one of my all time favorite thinkers and writers) became a “church-hold name.”

Our fellowship halls were turned into concert venues, or burned to the ground, ignited by thousands of artfully placed candles at “experience stations.” We did our best on this one…I loved it…but it sort of snuffed out in almost every place it was innovatively launched.

The Missional Church 

Yes, the jury is out, but what was meant to revitalize the church sometimes stirs deep pockets of division among the older and sparks imagination in the younger. Can you be “missional” and just plain old church too?

Conclusion: 

As Brian Jones says in response to so-called institutional faddism in his article, “It’s called BEING the church!” The more we do to revitalize it, the more flaccid it often becomes.

Many church observers would probably agree that some (but not all) of our most widely-touted “fixes” and innovations for the church failed to do much, cost a lot of money, and caused discord among many traditionalists—that’s probably a good thing.

Has anything changed, though?

Well, I’ve personally changed simply by walking through each of these mini-epic periods with my enthusiastic good intentions and commitment to church growth. It kept re-informing me though of the need to focus on the reality of God’s founding of the church, which is invincible, even against our many machinations.

Doug Lawrence, speaker, author, and advisor, helps churches assess and improve their skillfulness in creating engaging worship experiences by utilizing his more than 35 years of “deep trench” worship leadership in prominent mainline churches. This article first appeared on Church Central site and is used with permission.