Do Manhattan Churches Signal A Trend For The US?
New York City is America’s premier business, financial, communications, and cultural metropolis. Manhattan is its heart. On Sunday, July 25th, we walked into St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, the largest cathedral in North America, for the 11:00 AM Service. It is twice the size of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. The Statue of Liberty, pedestal and all, would fit where its main altar stands. With folding chairs, depending how they were arranged, 3000 to 5000 could be set up in the nave.
There were about 125 people in attendance for worship at the 11:00 AM Service. The two large screens on both walls facing the altar didn’t bring in the crowds and their appearance in a Gothic Cathedral was grotesque, to say the least. Church Growth is flat on its face in New York City. We didn ’t stay for worship but planned to visit other churches.
We walked down Amsterdam Avenue to a Methodist Church. It was more ornate than most traditional LCMS Churches. There were about 100 people worshipping but they didn’t have anyone to play the band instruments set up in the middle of the pews.
We walked a little further to an ELCA Church on 101 First Ave. or 100th Ave and there were about 50 people worshipping. The pastor wore a short sleeved shirt and was speaking from the middle of the aisle and talking about God getting "ticked off" about various issues. The pianist, in a sweatshirt, tried to get people involved with a lively hymn.
Later that day, at about 4:00 PM, we walked into St. Patrick’s Cathedral to view a Vespers Service. It was 97 degrees outside and St. Patty’s is not air-conditioned. There were about 600 to 800 people worshipping. In the chancel, three priests wearing chasubles, were conducting the service. We heard the appointed Scripture lessons for the day, liturgic responses from the worshipers, a confession of the Nicene Creed by the congregation, and a public confession and absolution.
Church Growth has failed in the Boston to D.C. metroplex. Actually it never got started. New Yorkers are mystified as to why Americans in other parts of the country are motivated to attend churches with bouncy music, large screens, and entertainment. In New Yorkers’ minds the success of the Church Growth Movement only confirms their opinion that Midwesterners are easy markets for religious con-artists.
New Yorkers ask, "Can anything good really come out of Missouri or Wisconsin or Michigan or Ohio or Iowa or Minnesota but river boats, cars, cheese, pigs, corn, or wrestlers?" When the New York Nicks were in the Playoffs against the Indiana Pacers, the New York media called it the Nicks vs. the Hicks. New Yorkers expect Midwestern church-goers to behave like jumping fanatics at a Jim Jones rally, less the Kool-Aid. They expect LCMS Sunday School teachers to shake their Holy Spirit pompoms as they did at the recent LCMS Sunday School Teacher’s rally in Kansas.
While the Protestant Churches are suffering major declines in the Northeast, the Roman Catholic Church is making a significant impact. The Roman Catholic Church is viewed by the media and the public as the authentic, credible, and permanent spokesman for Christianity.
The Roman Catholic Church has mounted an unprecedented campaign with their own radio and cable stations. One can hear testimonials on the radio while driving from Chicago to New York (and I’m sure many other locations) on how "I made the journey", meaning the journey back to the Roman Catholic Church. They broadcast a mantra from former Methodists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, etc. explaining why they are seeking the true church. One after another they give their story on why they had no peace because all the denominations can’t be right if they disagree with each other. This message is working in New York.
The Protestants are in disarray. After talking with friends I grew up with in New York, who have all dropped out of the LCMS, I decided to ask Protestants in Detroit the following question: "As a Protestant, what are you protesting against the Roman Catholic Church?" They don’t know.
The Protestant Reformation in America appears to be winding down. I asked a Methodist of 70 years what she was protesting. She couldn’t answer and she responded that she wasn’t going back to the Roman Catholic Church. I said, "You don’t have a reason not to go back. You just sound like you want to carry a grudge and you are prejudiced against Roman Catholics." I’ve tried this question on Presbyterians, Methodists, ELCA Lutherans, and non-denominationalists. None could explain what they were protesting against the Roman Catholic Church.
Today, nearly all Protestants say, "We all worship the same God." If we all worship the same God it is downright discriminatory to protest against someone else’s religion, particularly if you don’t have any opinion of your own.
The local nursing home where I conduct an occasional chapel service and visit and serve my own members Communion is run by a Nun who is about 70 years old. I asked her about the increasing interest in Roman Catholicism. She responded, "We are very strong on the East Coast." She also believes that the Protestant Reformation is coming to an end. She never thought she would see it in her lifetime but it is happening.
Roman Catholic Churches near Redeemer Lutheran Church have messages on their signs that read: "Join the Catholic Church," "Become a Catholic." For the first time in my ministry I’m seeing LCMS Lutherans "return" to the Catholic Church.
The Nun’s observation was that the rise of so-called non-denominational churches means the Reformation is coming to an end. To her non-denominationalism was nothing more than a transition. She looked at me and said, "You helped us 500 years ago now we need to help you. The Protestants need Creeds and sacramental theology."
She told me the Roman Catholic Church needs clergy. She tried to recruit me saying , "You could become a Roman Catholic Priest and keep your wife." That was more conversation than I was prepared to continue.
Few people know about Nestorianism. Nestorius was denounced as a heretic in 431AD because he denied the communication of attributes from the deity of Christ to the humanity of Christ just as the followers of John Calvin and the Baptists today. According to Latourette and Shaff, Nestorianism spread all the way to China and India by the 9th Century but began to decline and disappear by the 13th Century and has now virtually disappeared.
The Lutheran Reformation may suffer a similar fate as Nestorianism and become just another movement in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. On October 31, 1999, in Augusburg, Germany, the Pope is scheduled to sign a document of agreement on Justification with the 80% of the world’s 60 million Lutherans who belong to the Lutheran World Federation. If there is no protest on justification then future generations will look back to that event as the beginning of the end of the Protestant Reformation. It began with Luther in 1517 and the Protestants stopped protesting in 1999.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has agreed to fellowship with the Episcopal Church and has accepted its Episcopal Hierarchy as well as its understanding of the spiritual and not the physical presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. They have entered into fellowship with the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church in the USA, and the Moravians. They will now sign an agreement on justification with the Pope.
The average member of the mainline denominations now has little reason to protest anything, in fact, they think protesting against someone’s faith is non-Christian and loveless. Most people who attend a non-denominational church have no concept of Protestantism and have no reason not to return to the Roman Catholic Church except as a matter of personal taste.
Church attendance in the Northeast is the lowest in any part of the United States. The non-denominational movement will soon come to end after the millennial hype dissipates by 2005. Non-denominationalism is not a movement, but a fad with no reason to perpetuate itself except its love for self indulgence. If the attitude of the Northeast moves West, as so many other cultural trends do in America, we can expect a decline in Protestant Churches, the collapse of the Church Growth Movement, an overall decline in church attendance, and the growth of the Roman Catholic Church.
In their attempt to make the LCMS just like the other American Protestant Churches the Council of District Presidents is leading the LCMS to the same fate as the other Protestant Churches. Their eagerness to retrain LCMS pastors for Church Growth Leadership in Dr. Oesch’s Pastoral Leadership Institute is what New Yorkers expect from these Midwestern religious fanatics.
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.
September 26, 1999
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