Worship Trends

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle

Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'"

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her king.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name's Mike Abendroth, and I probably have not been driving this as I should, but we've got some spots for Israel open, and that is

February 15th, 2015. That's not that many months away. We'd love to have you go with us.

Everything's from Boston. And so if you go to the website, nocompromiseradio .com, at the top right, there's a little

Israel link. You can click on that, see the itinerary, and you need to pay $400 by October 1st.

First come, first serve. We'd love to have you go with us nine days in Israel, and then

I think a four -day extension, five -day extension in Jordan. So something like that.

Anyway, if you want to email me, info at nocompromiseradio .com, about that or anything else,

Facebook, we've been posting things regularly, and now Twitter. So for a long time,

NoCo Twitter was just, hey, here's the show. But now I've got some people we follow, and we've got some followers and some interaction.

And I think for a long time, I said I'd never tweet anything. And then I was kind of breaking my rule a little bit.

I'd send something to Ben and say, you post it. So I could say I'd never post anything. But I have posted a couple things since I've gotten back from South Africa.

And it just needed to be done. The backsliding compromise continues.

I still have Christianity Today in front of me. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that. But before I do, nine rapid changes in church worship services.

And so Tom Rainer, T -H -O -M -R -A -I -N -E -R .com has an article, "'Nine

Rapid Changes in Church Worship Services,' May 7th, 2014." I thought it would make interesting radio because it's an interesting article.

What has changed in the last 10 years, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, when it comes to church worship services?

He starts off the article by saying, if you were attending a church worship service in 1955 and then returned to the same church in 1975, the changes would be noticeable, but not dramatic.

Churches were slow to change over that 20 year period. So from 55 to 75. If however, you attended a church worship service in 2000 and then returned to that same church in 2010, there's a high likelihood you would see a dramatic change in just 10 years.

So, he did talk about some data that comes from the National Congregation Study by Duke University.

Said it was a little dated. And so he took that information, some anecdotal information, some church consulting information, and came up with nine changes that have happened in worship services.

And I don't know if there's a timeframe here. It does say, I'm offering these from the perspective of church worship.

I'm offering these from the perspective of a researcher. I'm not making qualitative assessments. So, that's left to me.

I'll be the judge of that. See, so what we're trying to do at No Compromise Radio is we're trying to get you to think biblically.

And we think discernment is good. Discernment. We think it's a good thing.

The Bereans were commended, Act 17. And Paul says to the Church of Thessalonica, he commands them to be discerning.

And so, I don't want to be known as a discernment ministry. I got an email the other day from a nice lady.

And she was saying, thank you for this, that, and the other. And she said, I appreciate your discernment ministry.

And so I wrote back and I said that you would take the time to write. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Blah, blah, blah. And then I said, but the only thing is I don't think I'm a discernment ministry because there's so many different hats that we have around here.

One's preaching Sunday morning, Sunday night. One's being a dad. One's the author.

Some NoCo stuff. If you go to Worldview Weekend, Brandon's now posting the

Ruth series. Didn't mention false teachers by name in the Ruth series, that type of thing.

And so, anyway, if you only know us by NoCo and radio, you might not fully notice the nuances that we have.

So it bugs me if somebody says, oh, that's a discernment ministry. Because the plan really is,

I don't know how often I fulfill the plan, but the plan is with NoCo radio. Always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.

And so I might not be the best at finessing things, massaging things.

I just kind of tell it like it is. But, you know, I try to have some, like if you're hurting and you come in for counsel,

I'll be nice to you. But this is radio, right? So I don't have to be nice to anybody.

Just kidding. And so, anyway, I'm just rambling away. That's what I'm doing, rambling.

And so I need more caffeine is what I need. Oh, I know what I was gonna say. So then on Monday, it's a sermon.

Tuesday, I talk to Steve about issues. We have some fun. Wednesday, I try to interview authors.

Like when I talk to Parsons from Ligonier, you wouldn't say, oh, that's a discernment ministry. You'd say that was encouraging.

And then Thursday, I try to teach something positive. Friday is probably the discernment ministry Friday. Woodshed Friday, we call it.

I need a t -shirt, Woodshed Friday. Somebody make me one, would you? Make me one, ship it. I've been wearing mediums these days.

It's been such a long winter in New England. And every year I say, I'm not gonna gain any weight in the winter, but it is inevitable.

It is awful. It is just one of those things that happens. So then

I got sick for three weeks before I went to South Africa. And so if I can't bicycle, then it's pretty much impossible for me to lose any weight.

I mean, how do you live on 1800 calories a day? That's probably what my body burns.

And then I go to South Africa for three weeks and it's winter there. So it's been an awful, awful, awful.

So Rainier says, and he's a Southern Baptist and I think he's pretty insightful. I don't go for everything he says, but he's a good analyst, an excellent analyst.

So what do you see changing according to Tom Rainier? Let's talk about it. Number one, choirs are disappearing.

Well, you say I'm a Reformed Baptist, I'm OPC, and we don't want choirs anyway.

And if you think of the regular principle, we don't want people singing to us, special music kind of things.

But let's put that argument aside for a moment. What are the choirs? I mean, what we have is the coffee house rock band wall of sound approach now.

That's what we have instead of choir robes and choir lofts. And one of the things that I do love about choirs is they do facilitate congregational singing.

So we have those who help the congregation sing and give it a little musical excellence to the whole operation.

But choirs are disappearing. From 98 to 2007, percentages of churches with choirs decreased from 54 to 44%.

If this whole space, the percentage of churches with choirs is only 37%. And so while it's not right or wrong to have choir at the church, they are on the way out.

And I think it's because choirs are associated with some hymns and older songs that they can arrange.

And some of the new Michael W. Smith songs, or I don't know who the new people are, it's hard to arrange those.

And you've got this rock band coffee house approach. And so while I like rock bands and coffee houses,

I don't really like them on Sunday morning. If I can't hear myself sing, there's a real problem.

Number two, dress is more casual. You think? As you know, on No Compromise Radio, one of my pet peeves of all time, we've run the pet peeve show several times, got in trouble that many times as well, is when churches say, come casually, come as you are, everybody welcome.

What does that mean? Everybody welcome kind of means now, we don't care if you are homosexual or not, you're welcome.

That's what that means. And on one sense, isn't every church supposed to welcome sinners?

Now, welcome unrepentant sinners into membership, welcome unrepentant sinners into leadership.

Not talking about those things, but you are welcome if you're here. We will welcome you.

If you show up, I will greet you. And I don't care what you look like on the outside, what color you are, how many tattoos you have or don't have, piercings.

I mean, I might look at you and say, those things in your ears, spacing those things out that are the size of Frisbees, that's pretty dumb.

My mind would probably say that, but I would smile and say, welcome to Bethlehem Bible Church. And so, anyway,

I'm just starting to go off on this. He says, a man wearing a tie in a worship service is now among the few rather than the majority.

The degree of casual dress is contextual. The trend is crossing all geographic and demographic lines.

It is not a sin not to dress up for church service. I don't wanna be a legalist. I don't wanna say what you have to do.

I'm still preaching in a tie and a sports coat on Sunday morning. And if I go to a church and they say, you gotta loosen up a little bit,

I'll take my tie off and or my sports jacket. And for me, just to give you a little insight, theologically speaking, not necessarily so much, but practically speaking, there are enough older folks at church worship services.

I just don't wanna offend them. I don't want to make them say, well, you know what?

Why doesn't he do such and such? Listen, friend to friend, people get bugged at pastors.

Well, sometimes because pastors sin or ornery or they just do things improperly.

They're not Jesus. That's why you better have a pastor who preaches Jesus instead of himself.

But I don't wanna give people ammo for things that I could just avoid so easily.

So for instance, today, I have some kind of board shorts on, a material that dries quickly, but they're shorts.

They're like a Quicksilver Hurley kind of shorts, but they're clean, they're nice.

I have tennis shoes on. And I have a shirt that's got like half a collar on it.

And so most of the days I go into the church building to work. I just wear shorts in the summer.

I will wear jeans in the winter time. And I don't really wear suits that often.

Now, if it's a funeral or a wedding or something like that, of course. But pastors say, well,

I wanna be casual. And we're not gonna be legalist. I don't have to wear suits. And they are at their church a month or two and they start doing that.

I just think it gives ammo for people. Let them be bugged at real things instead of that.

And so that's like my friend who wants to wear earrings in the pulpit. Well, I don't really care if you wear earrings or not, but in the pulpit, you're just giving people ammo.

So I try to avoid giving people reasons to be bugged at me as a pastor.

Number three, we're talking about Tom Rainier's nine rapid changes in church worship services.

Number three, screens are pervasive. Some of you remember the days when putting up a projection screen in a worship service was considered a sacrilege.

And if they have hymnals, the hymnals are largely ignored and the congregants follow along on the screens. Well, when

I got to Bethlehem Bible Church in 1997, they had a projector and they would put up on the wall their lyrics of the contemporary songs.

There were hymnals and there still are hymnals, but that would be up on the screen.

I don't think we have regular screens here. I don't wanna say it's sinful to have screens, but it's sinful to have screens, just kidding.

But I do notice that if there are screens, my eye goes up to the screen more than my eye goes to the front.

And there's something to be said for screens and announcements and lyrics and easier to see.

I understand that, I get that. But I also noticed that if I'm in the back of the sanctuary and I'm in the middle of the auditorium and I don't really need to see the pockmarks of the pastor's face.

I don't really need to see that. I just need to hear more than I need to see. And so I remember once I was in Germany, in a

Russian speaking part of Germany, what used to be East Germany, and they had these big screens and Christian Andreessen was my translator.

You know, it was a German, the German service was first, then the

Russian service was second, but the Russians designed the church. And the screen was so big, when

I turned over to Christian to see if he would finish the translation sentence, translating the sentence,

I could see myself, I don't know, like 60 feet high or something. Nobody needs to see that.

Nobody needs to see the pastor. I do think screens at the beginning of the service for hymns and songs and spiritual songs would be good, but for the preaching,

I don't know. I prefer not. Notice my language, I prefer not. Number four, preaching is longer.

Well, that's interesting. Sermons are longer. Well, if they're longer without biblical material, then forget that.

Remember 2 Timothy 4, to preach the word, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction or doctrine.

So they're preaching the word right on, if it's felt needs sensitivity, man -centeredness, then that's no good.

I mean, one of the things that I want to do at Bethlehem Bible Church is to have a God -centered service. And so fleshly people, carnal people, felt needy people, they don't really like the service.

They don't like the music. They don't like the preaching because it's not about them, but I'm gonna give them what they need and not what they want.

This is a real need that you have, is to have a Christ -centered service. And we're gonna talk about Psalm 95 in the weeks to come on No Compromise Radio.

And so this whole approach where you exegete the congregation before you exegete the passage, or you do the two simultaneously,

I reject all that. I call that sweater vest preaching. There are people that have sweater vests on when they preach and people who have the

PowerPoint, let's show you this funny little clip. And when people say, well, here's the video clip we're gonna play during the sermon.

I'm sure this will get me in trouble, but hey, it's my show. That's awful.

If you have to play a video clip during your sermon, I am not saying you couldn't do it on a

Sunday night, a missions update, there's a Sunday school where you wanna play something, you've got a discipleship group and you wanna play a video to show them so you can interact, there's a time and place.

But the time and place is not Sunday morning during the sermon. What does that say?

You know, well, we got a piece of pie and we divvy up the pie to entertainment, to travel, to groceries, and then

God doesn't have a piece of pie left and he's some kind of big guy and he's got white hair and he didn't have a piece of pie.

I was at Santa Cruz Bible when they played that, that's awful. First of all, it tells me things about God that aren't true.

He's like this overweight, bald white guy. And then it also distracts from the message.

This is a proclamation. I mean, this is a heralding.

This is gospeling the gospel to use the language of 1 Corinthians 15. And so churches in the neighborhood around here too, well, let's have the

PowerPoint thing. I know it's schadenfreude. I know I shouldn't admit this, but I will.

When they say, would you click that again, go a little faster, PowerPoint's broken, sorry.

I think it's funny. I think it's funny. That's why I don't do PowerPoint secondarily, but primarily is because I have a philosophy of preaching that comes from the

Bible and it's fleshed out. You see in church history, the reformation, and this is not what we do. I mean, there's a church locally, they play the nail thing.

Let's just play, it's a special series on the family and let's play a communication.

It's the nail and it's got that lady with the nail in the head and she can't, she can't understand what the pain is.

It's dull and it's a funny little video, but for preaching, for a sermon,

I mean, the first time that happened here, the people would be fired. They'd be gone.

The word of God, isn't it living? Isn't it active? Isn't it powerful? Doesn't it do its work in those who believe?

Doesn't it just, I mean, I'm reading through now judges. I'm wanting to preach judges badly.

And now let's have a little video vignette. Let's just play the video. So the preaching, when it gets longer,

I like it, but when it's felt needs, exegeting the people, playing videos, maybe it's longer because people are playing the videos.

That's just awful. I think two things I've said now are awful. Five, multi is normative, multi -services, multi -campuses, multi -sites, multi -venues.

And I have to say here, I don't like any of them. Say, but yeah, Mike, you guys do multiple services.

I know, I hate it. I hate it. He hate me.

Remember that football player? He hate me. But I hate something more than multiple services.

And that is multi -site, multi -campus, multi -venues. I want to see the pastor.

I want the pastor to say hi to my kids. There's even a side benefit when

I see the pastor in real life and he doesn't do everything perfectly and righteously.

I say to myself, he's just a man and I need to be thinking about the person this pastor preaches about, the

Lord Jesus Christ. I guess I would allow multi -site, multi -venue, multi -campus if you knew it was gonna be short -term.

Say, well, we're gonna have two campuses. I'll go over there and preach and then I'll come over here and preach. And we're just doing this to get us by.

I don't like any of the video stuff. Short -term, I wouldn't even like it, but I would understand more.

But now we've got a real popular person, a real popular celebrity preacher and he's here only once every four weeks.

We can't tell you where he's gonna be because you'll drive to the other place because you want to see him. And I think Carl Truman is so right on when he says that when it comes to rock bands though and the performance team, the worship team, you have your own team at each site.

You don't get that pumped in because presence is important and they know that with music, but they just stream in live the pastor and you just get to watch him.

I wanna see that pastor at the door. I want these little kids to come up and grab my leg and won't let go.

There's one particular girl at our church and if she ever sees me and she grabs my leg at the door and I'm greeting people,

I'm not kidding you, she will not let go. I like that. Not that she doesn't let me go, but I like it that she wants to say hi to pastor.

All right, number six, attendees are more diverse. Trend of the decrease in the number of all white congregations.

And I can say this as a old racist, somebody who used to be prejudiced regarding skin color, but then

God saved me and now I can totally say without any equivocation that I have been given by the grace of God a love for all kinds of people, not just white

German people. And my daughters and son can marry anyone they'd like as long as they're of the opposite sex, have always been from the opposite sex, are born again, are

Calvinistic, I don't really care. Don't care at all. But if you've got churches in the white part of town and they're gonna be white, then fine.

Black part of town, they're gonna be black. Diversity isn't the issue. It's if somebody who comes from a different background who's more diverse than the congregation, are they welcomed by the congregation?

So if you live in the city and you only have white people in the city and you're in Manhattan, well, maybe that'll tell me something.

But for instance, I'm out here in West Boilston, I don't know, 5 ,800 people, 6 ,000 people.

And I know our church is more diverse ethnically and racially than the town.

That's because people are driving up from Worcester and other places because they wanna hear the gospel. And so, number seven, conflict is not increasing.

Worship wars he's talking about. Okay, I don't really have any comments on that. Eight, more worship attendees are attending larger churches.

Churches with an attendance of 400 and up now account for 90 % of all worship attendees.

That's pretty shocking when you read that. Let me read it again. Churches with an attendance of 400 and up now account for 90 % of all worship attendees.

Inversely, those churches with an attendance of under 400 only account for 10 % of worship attendees.

See, I find that intriguing because most churches have a hundred people or less in terms of the number of, right?

Think of all the rural places out there. But these numbers are skewed because how many people attend these larger churches.

And then finally, Sunday evening services are disappearing. Sunday evening services are disappearing.

Now, if you go back to the New Testament days, my guess is you would have Sunday night services only.

Why? Because people had to work on Sunday. Saturday was a Sabbath, but not Sunday. And so you work six days a week.

And so Sundays you worked and then afterwards you grabbed something to eat and then you would show up at a worship service on Sunday.

And there's no prescription in the New Testament Sunday morning and Sunday night. I like Sunday nights because they bookend the day for me, the

Lord's day, I'm not a Sabbatarian. So anyway, my name is Mike Gabendroth. Interesting piece by Tom Ernier.

You can pull him up at tomernier .com or if you wanna go to NoCompromiseRadio, nocompromiseradio .com.

We'd love to have you go to Israel with us. God is telling me now, there are nine people out there who have not sent their forms in who need to send their forms in now.

Nocompromiseradio .com. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.