By Mike Glenn
I’ve noticed a recurring topic in my conversations with other pastors. For some reason - and maybe it’s my gray hair or the fact that I’ve been serving at my current position for over thirty years - other pastors, especially younger pastors, want to know how things have changed since I began my ministry in the early eighties. Where do I begin? Obviously, there have been a few changes over the last forty-five years.
For one thing, there’s the whole internet thing. When I started, calendars were on paper and we stayed in touch with our church members by calling them on the phone...that was attached to the wall. Now, every book I used in seminary is an e-book that can be cross-referenced with just a few keystrokes. Sermons have gone from struggling to find the right word to finding the right video, slide, and music to enhance and strengthen the “sermon event.”
When preaching, I used to worry about the sermon holding the attention of the congregation. People’s thoughts would wander off and you would wonder if they were listening at all. Now, you know they aren’t listening. Everyone has their phone in their face. For someone to listen, the sermon has to be better than EVERYTHING on the internet or people will simply turn you off with a few swipes or clicks.
Yet, the most profoundly interesting, curious, and overwhelming reality is the number of unbelievers who will be in attendance on any given Sunday. A few years ago, you would hear pastors complaining about “preaching to the choir.” According to them, every person they saw on Sunday morning was already a believer. Pastors were always asking their members to bring their unsaved friends.
Not anymore. Most of the people in attendance in any church on any given Sunday morning are, in one way or another, an unbeliever. Let me explain. Read More
For one thing, there’s the whole internet thing. When I started, calendars were on paper and we stayed in touch with our church members by calling them on the phone...that was attached to the wall. Now, every book I used in seminary is an e-book that can be cross-referenced with just a few keystrokes. Sermons have gone from struggling to find the right word to finding the right video, slide, and music to enhance and strengthen the “sermon event.”
When preaching, I used to worry about the sermon holding the attention of the congregation. People’s thoughts would wander off and you would wonder if they were listening at all. Now, you know they aren’t listening. Everyone has their phone in their face. For someone to listen, the sermon has to be better than EVERYTHING on the internet or people will simply turn you off with a few swipes or clicks.
Yet, the most profoundly interesting, curious, and overwhelming reality is the number of unbelievers who will be in attendance on any given Sunday. A few years ago, you would hear pastors complaining about “preaching to the choir.” According to them, every person they saw on Sunday morning was already a believer. Pastors were always asking their members to bring their unsaved friends.
Not anymore. Most of the people in attendance in any church on any given Sunday morning are, in one way or another, an unbeliever. Let me explain. Read More
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