SOUND CONTROL!

A new basket sitting on the welcome table in our church’s lobby is filled with little orange and purple squishy foam ear plugs and has a sign that reads “VOLUME CONTROL”. They were a simple and inexpensive solution to a much larger, complex problem. Concord United Methodist Church is by nature a contemporary church. For more than 20 years now and three pastors, God has been leading this church to move outside the normal traditional genre of rural churches and dabble across the lines of creative, media filled, metaphor embedded, contemporary worship. So we have gone exactly there, but not without bumps. It’s an incredible congregation filled with a variety of backgrounds, educational levels, and worship backgrounds. There are elders who were raised in the prayer chapel just down the hall, two story stained glass windows on either side of the wooden carved pews (bench seats) and an organ on the riser. There are middlers who were raised in the same chapel, as children, while others were drawn to the church by a contemporary service on Saturday nights filled with drama, praise songs, and a more relaxed atmosphere. Still other young people, youth, and even some middlers and elders, were not raised in the church at all. Their parents never attended, or they attended periodically but not with any regular consistency. There is also a group of those who once attended, but for many reasons stopped, and have now returned either to the same or a different church. Did I mention some are university professors, while others are farmers, students, machinists, or fast food workers? We are a varied bunch. Then there is the different denominational backgrounds. We have Pentecostals who are led to raise their hands to the heavens during worship and Catholics who prefer to show the sign of the cross before receiving Holy Communion. Then of course we have many with backgrounds in the Lutheran, Presbyterian, Community, or Congregational Church who now attend our church regularly and call it home. The days of remaining faithful to one denomination or attending worship services weekly consistently seem to be diminishing. But desiring a personal relationship with a God who calls each of us toward himself, well, that doesn’t seem to be diminishing at all. In fact, I believe that desire has done nothing but grown in a world where stuff, self-absorption, and addiction to entertainment have burgeoned in our lives. There seems to be a growing desire to simplify our lives and find meaning that goes deeper than working to get a paycheck to consume to work to get the next paycheck. Yet the reality remains that many of us have been programmed to shorter sound bites, interactive visuals, and attention getting advertisements. So God is no dummy. God has never been behind the ball when it comes to wisdom, knowledge and knowing what it takes to get the attention of his people. He used plagues when fear worked as a compelling motivator. He used miracles when magic was a draw. And he surely has used more uplifting and lively music when a few generations have felt depressed and without life. So yes, we have a full band and have for almost two decades. Yes, with three guitars, a full drum set, a grand piano, a keyboard, and several vocalists, it can get pretty darn loud. Yes, we do use humorous, thought provoking, or artistic videos most every week and yes, our lyrics and prayers are printed up on the wall instead of in a bulletin or book. But we are still worshipping the same God for all the same reasons. We want a personal relationship with the One who created us and we want our lives to have deep and purposeful meaning. So don’t leave if it’s too loud or feel like your voice isn’t being heard. Just pick up some of those brightly colored ear plugs and pop ‘em in. Your ears will thank you, and so will those who finally found a place they can call home.