PUTTING AN END TO WORSHIP WARS - Elmer Towns

Churches will use more video filmed announcements, testimonies and even "short
subjects" to reinforce the sermon. Churches will continue to use overhead or slide projectors for
music and scripture reading. Some pastors are getting outstanding sermon support from rear
screen projection to enhance communications, including sermon outlines, maps, pictures,
landscapes, time lines and other eye-appealing helps.
5. Urbanization. The American church has been driven by rural values and thinking.
Of course the worship service was held at 11:00 AM because of the cows. In the olden days the
farmer had to get up early to milk his cows or they would go dry. Then he fed the stock, did his
chores and by the time he ate breakfast and took a bath, it only gave him time to get to church for
9:45 Sunday School and 11:00 AM church service. Today, most urban churches hold worship at
11:00 AM, but there are no cows, only a rural tradition continues.
Much of America church tradition is steeped in rural tradition, and as our nation is
becoming more urbanized, metropolitan city values are influencing the church. More and more
Bible study is being done in cell groups instead of adult Sunday School classes. Rather than
sitting in folding chairs, lined up in rows, listening to a Bible lesson, contemporary America
prefers the informality of a home TLC (Tender Loving Care) group. Rick Warren, pastor of
Saddleback Church, Mission Viejo, California, says, "Put a guy in a tie and coat, sit him in a
classroom and he'll never say a word." Then pastor Warren who uses cells effectively observes,
"Put the same guy on a couch in someone's family room, give him a cup of coffee and he'll talk
your arm off." The dynamics of Body Life worship will continue to grow as Americans can't
build large educational buildings and won't attend structured classes. As our nation continues the
trend toward informality, cells will grow in popularity. As the by-product of urbanization-anonymity--continues
to grow, the attractiveness of Body Life services will attract more and
more.
6. Multi-expression. Sunday morning worship will continue to vary from street to
street, from ethnic community to ethnic community. One church will remind you of an
eighteenth-century European service, and across town there will be the up-beat "mod" church
service that is free-wheeling and contemporary.
Some will meet in humble frame buildings on dirt streets. Others will meet in soaring
cathedrals with spires and magnificent stained glass windows. Some will have a "do-it-yourself"
variety of worship with lay preachers and a simple format. Other churches will reflect traditional
America mainline protestant forms. Still others will reflect the emerging church that reflects
"Body life" and koinonia fellowship.
Religious intensity will continue to vary from apathy in some churches about to die to the
fervency of revivalistic preaching in fundamentalistic churches. The not-so-traditional ethnic
sect (i.e. Mennonite or Amish) will reflect its family traditions. The cathedral will demand
reverence and those worshipping in a close-knit family living room will shows hospitality and
friendliness. The emotional charismatic churches will generate excitement, and the mystical
quiet churches will demand meditation and reflective worship. The only thing we will know for