Sex and the Seeker Service
The practitioners of Church Growth claim their movement is about change, transformation, and new and effective approaches to evangelism and discipleship. In reality, "Church Growth" worship is nothing more than an emotional, entertaining, antitheological, anticatechetical, millennialist, fad. It’s all about the crowd being more important than God’s Word.
Because Church Growth is so closely tied to cultural trends and the date 2000, it cannot survive in its current format beyond 2005. But what about the huge theater style church buildings that now house these modern day tent revivals and salvation shows?
Entertainment based worship only has one inevitable direction. One thing is certain, titillation draws a crowd. Gypsy Rose Lee helped pay the bills at a lot of failing theaters. Just like TV moved on from "Ozzie and Harriet" to "Friends" who sleep together, so the chancel/stage of the new Church Growth buildings will inevitably present what is necessary to maintain attendance.
Let me assure you that the first steps to introducing sex in the Seeker Service will be appropriate, relevant, and tastefully done,. Relevant sexual themes are already presented in religious dramas during worship on subjects related to condoms, premarital sex, adultery, etc., at Willow Creek. The dramas can become more interesting than their message.
Reviews in the Detroit News of the new Kensington Church in suburban Detroit read as follows. "Kensington, the rock music is so loud that people’s ears may whistle when they leave and the comedy sketches occasionally stray into risqué material."
Last summer (1998) the LCMS congregation in Roselle, Illinois, sponsored a worship seminar including young women dancing with candles in the chancel/stage in flowing white gowns. Nubile confirmation age girls in leotards and gossamer veils already dance in LCMS chancels.
Recently, at Grosse Pointe United Church, Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Doctor Thomas Moore, author of "Care of the Soul" and "The Soul of Sex," presented a workshop on "Pastoral Care: Where Spirituality and Sexuality Connect." The morning session was titled "The Soulful Significance of Human Sexuality." The afternoon session was titled "Soulful Sexuality in Pastoral Care, Worship, and Education."
Denominations involved include United Church of Christ, a local Catholic College, the Episcopalian Diocese of Michigan, and Unity. Moore has 12 years experience as a monk, a master’s degree in theology, another in music, a doctorate in religious studies, and is a licensed psychotherapist.
Moore was sponsored by the Midwest Institute of Sexology (www.MWSexual.com). They specialize in sexual health, healing, and happiness. Now here is the right combination to meet felt needs in worship. Bulleted items in the program included, "How are we, who work with spirituality and life practices of those in our care, to help them place sexuality in its proper celebratory and religious context?"
The combination of celebratory worship and celebratory sex will open new worlds for the Seeker Service. The originators of Church Growth were far to pietistic for such an approach in the early 70’s, but in what other direction can an entertainment based religious movement take?
There is sure to be some fallout. Some pastors now deeply involved in the Church Growth Movement will find themselves morally and ethically unable to follow the crowd. This will lead to an inevitable split in the movement. The "progressives" will continue to grow, but the "traditionalists" will suffer the stagnation of emotionalism without sex.
In the next few years the public will be introduced to new theological formulations that will recognize the "whole person" in worship. The incorporation of ever increasing titillating themes, images, and activities in Seeker Services will strive to deal with the real issues of life in reality based worship.
All marketers know that sex sells. The question is how to introduce it tastefully, correctly and effectively in worship. One can expect an increase in male attendance and stewardship. How about this approach: The puritanical Victorian prudery that has inhibited a healthy and normal celebration of God’s gifts must not be carried into the new millennium.
There are a whole range of taboos that have kept many Biblical themes and texts from their rightful place in worship that must be removed. Just let your mind wander and you will do a better job than this to explain the next trend in worship designed to fill the house and pay the bills.
Sexuality in worship is as old as the Old Testament. It was practiced by all of Israel’s neighbors. Then the Israelites, led by Jezebel, practiced it themselves. They did not stop worshipping the pagan gods until the Babylonian Captivity.
Paul had to confront the Corinthians on the subject, as do at least two of the letters to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation. As the entertainment increases in "Seeker Services," one can expect class action suits being filed by the television, movie, and live entertainment industries for unfair competition from tax free non-profit corporations that call themselves churches.
Rev. Jack Cascione is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church (LCMS - MI) in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. He has written numerous articles for Christian News and is the author of Reclaiming the Gospel in the LCMS: How to Keep Your Congregation Lutheran. He has also written a study on the Book of Revelation called In Search of the Biblical Order.
He can be reached by email at pastorcascione@juno.com.
July 18, 1999
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