NOT Your Grandma's Church

There is an advertising slogan that is frequently seen in conjunction with the trendy new churches that are emerging. “We're NOT your Grandma's church!” proclaims one website. “We feature strobing lights, heart-thumping music, and dangerous messages.” Do a search on the phrase and you will find that assuring seekers that Grandma won't be in attendance at their church is the catchphrase of the hour.

At a time when even church growth poster boy,  George Barna, is publishing alarming press releases about the “Laodicean” state of the church, perhaps it's a good idea to explore what ejecting Grandma from the premises of the local church has accomplished. Is it possible that the gray heads found in wisdom know some things that the new breed of pastor and church member do not? That answer to that question is, yes.

In the first place, Grandma has decades of living that the Starbucks swilling guy with the goatee does not. She has lived through many life storms and those arthritic and worn hands with the age spots speak of  experience.

She has seen countless inventions, fads and trends come and go over the decades of her life, and so she is unimpressed with your PowerPoint, Ipod, websites and Internet. She has seen countless spiritual fads come and go in churches, as well. She remembers entire denominations that were once Bible-preaching become too cool for the Word of God and exchange the truth for a lie. Her eyes have seen more than young eyes have.

Grandma knows that you don't treat precious spiritual gems like marbles and play with them. That's why she believes music about God should be holy and reverent and not sound like something off the pop station. She knows that the house of God should not look and sound like a nightclub and that's why she won't worship a Thrice Holy God with strobe lights flashing and evangelical pole dancers in the aisle. Grandma also knows that the treasures of Christian hymnody, passed down for 2,000 years are not trash to be discarded for something more “relevant”. In all of the storms she has faced in her life, she can't imagine not being able to sing of the Anchor that holds, the Rock of Ages, the Solid Rock of her Savior. When she lost a child and then her husband, she knew how precious it was to have those hymns and Gospel songs in the dark night hours. Grandma understands that those who follow Jesus will not have their “Best Life Now” but as Scripture says, will face much affliction and trial. But she also knows that Great is His Faithfulness and she wouldn't trade those songs in the night for one moment without the Lord.

Grandma has seen countless church drives and campaigns come and go and she knows that 40 days of this and 30 days of that will soon be forgotten in the mists of time, just like all the other man-made gimmicks. She knows that all spiritual growth in the Christian life comes with studying and hearing the preaching of the Word, not the buying and reading of yet another Christian bestseller from some big publishing house. She has seen those come and go, too. That's why Grandma attends church where the pastor will take out the Bible and teach, line upon line. She sees the foolishness and carnality of using movie clips of Spiderman and Shrek to make a point in a sermon when the pastor could hold the whole counsel of God in his hands. She has seen the train wrecks of ministry lives that were built on sand and she knows that without the primacy of the Word, no true work of God can take place.

In Leviticus 19:32, God tells us in Holy Scripture to rise up before the elderly among us.

You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.

Again and again within church growth literature, I have seen patronizing references to how the older people in the congregation should be treated. They are called the “resisters”, the “obstacles” to change, the traditionalists who refuse to allow new things. Give them their own little service and then we can take over and do church the right way, trumpet the “experts” in these places. Grandma won't go for smoke machines and spandex clad dancers so we'll get these old folks out of the way with a little token effort and hope they get so disgusted they'll all leave so they won't detract from our cool image.

God save us from these kind of churches and this sinful mentality. The church has followed the rest of American culture in its worship of youth. The callow and the inexperienced are handed the keys of the church and allowed to take over while those with decades of spiritual insight and wisdom are shunted off on some bus tour. The elderly are increasingly despised and viewed as parasites on a church ministry, taking up the “valuable” time of church leaders in hospital and nursing home visits. Increasingly, these visits aren't even happening anymore. They just don't fit with the job description of the superstar megapastor or  the 20-something emerging pastor bristling with body piercings and tattoos.

The worst of the spiritual blindness in our churches today is that we are looking at ruins and don't even see it. When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? I believe there is an answer to that and it's found in the example of Nehemiah. We need to begin to rebuild from the rubble, even if it's only in one small corner of the ruins. We need to build biblical walls against error and false teaching on church growth. We have to begin somewhere. Ministries like Worldview Weekend are helping to do that rebuilding. I believe that there is a segment of college students and young adults that truly desires truth, that has not bought in to the postmodern thinking of the hour and that is longing for the old paths of biblical faithfulness. In short, there are still 7,000, at least, who have not bowed the knee to the evangelical Ba'al. We must pray for them because they are facing opposition not only from the secular culture but from the entrenched carnality and man-centered culture of the “church.” But, as the old hymn writer Paul Gerhardt wrote, “If God himself be for me, I may a host defy.” God grant us all the strength to stand in the teeth of error and foolishness in our churches and return to worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth--child and Grandma, side by side.

By Ingrid Schlueter Email: vcyproducer@aol.com Click here for bio and archived articles