One Sunday years ago as we were leaving mass with our sons, my husband said “Where are the men?” This started a discussion that has haunted me for years, and led me along a wandering path of thought about why so many people are not attending a church. His observation was specifically about how many women and children were attending mass without a husband and father every week. Not every woman there with children was a single parent, and yet he was correct, the pews were filled with women and children, and most of the men present were seniors.
This morning I read a great article by Matt Walsh at The Blaze. He supposes Christianity is dying from boredom. Here he discusses a recent service he attended in a church he visited.
The pastor began with another round of jokes. They weren’t very funny but they succeeded in being unserious, which I guess is close enough. The sermon was jam packed with youth slang and pop culture. He mentioned a couple of TV shows and Netflix. He made sports metaphors. He didn’t do anything with the references, he just hung them out there like we were supposed to be impressed that he knows about these things.
I think he even said something about Angry Birds. Dated, sure, but it did the job of letting us know that the guy speaking also used a smart phone at some point in the last five years. OMG! He totally gets us!
The word “Gospel” made maybe one appearance in his message. The words “truth,” “sacred,” “reverence,” “sin,” “hell,” “virtue,” “obedience,” and “duty” were conspicuously absent, just as they’re absent from most sermons delivered in most churches, everywhere in the country. Of course he did throw in a friendly helping of “friend” and “helping.” And “tolerance.” Obviously tolerance. It’s important to only preach the sort of principles we can practice from our couches, you know. (more…)
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