So do you have “pet peeves?” You know those habits and trends and behaviors that drive you a little crazy. I have a few, in no particular order… For example, when instead of choosing to change our behavior we decide it is easier to change our terminology. If abortion becomes too unseemly a concept, we’ll just lump it as an option into something called family planning, and who wouldn’t embrace family planning? Governments in general are pretty good at this little smoke and mirrors show… but we all do it a little.
How about athletes who refer to God very frequently after a success, but in the next moment, are cursing, flipping off fans, holding out for an extra million, and speaking in the third person about themselves… that’s always been like fingernails on the blackboard to me. I think we should leave God out of our little ego trips… He gets enough bad PR as it is…
Then, we come to a few pet peeves involving some of our habits around modern church-life, and in worship. Most of my friends at Salem will already know about several of these irritants, since I refer to them from time to time. I have made my career in ministry, and I need to quickly confess that not only have I observed a lifetime full of little irritating “things we do,” but am guilty of most of them at some point or another. For example, here’s one… we brow beat our families about not living stressed out lives and we challenge them to take time for family, then we program their lives to the hilt. And if they don’t participate in all our programming we feel slighted. We talk about helping families and being a resource to parents, but most of our programming for kids and students is targeted at kids and students, and has little to do with families. On the occasion when we include mom and dad they rarely participate… partly because we have programmed them to believe it is the church’s job to handle the “spiritual development” of their kids.
Probably though my greatest pet peeves through the years revolve around little things I see in worship. I have always been most passionate about the worship aspects of my calling. One little irritant I reference frequently around Salem is when a worship service is filled with “us” stuff instead of God stuff. I was pretty surprised on my first Sunday at one church I served many years ago… when the service began like this: a call to worship was followed by five minutes of announcements, general silliness and jokes from a staffer, followed by happy birthday and anniversary wishes to congregants followed by a special word from one of the organizations of the church. By now we were 20 minutes into a 60 minute “worship” service, and only about three of those minutes had anything to do with God. As I recall, God warns us in Exodus 20:5 that He is a jealous God. I don’t think we should take up precious God time in worship to focus on “us” stuff. Seems like we are just asking for what my mom used to call a “comeupance” from the Almighty for such selfishness… and there are adequate ways to get the “us” stuff accomplished that don’t upstage God.
Another worship pet peeve is when the worship leader does not engage in the Word and the Pastor does not engage in worship… terrible example to set. I remember a pastor I had many years ago who rarely sang, often would not even stand up with the congregation during the parts of the service that were not “his.” He used the time to review his notes. It has become my joy to get off the stage and out of the stage “pulpit chair” and sit on the front row as a worshiper this past decade! The Senior Pastor should be the most enthusiastic worshiper in the house, and the Worship Pastor should be the most passionate guy in the room about the Word.
Finally.. one of my pet “pet peeves.” When we separate the stage and pulpit from the “common” worshipers, as if only one or two folks have something to offer from this elevated sanctum. Nothing gives me more pleasure in worship than seeing a multitude… not just in the audience, but a multitude of participants on the stage. Check out OT worship practices in 2 Chronicles 7 and Nehemiah 8 and 9… There is so much stuff going on and so many people involved, it makes your head spin. At Salem we are enjoying more and more the utilizing of large numbers of men, women, teens, and children in worship arts of all types. On Sunday, which was Kids Day in Worship we had a Worship Choir, a Children’s Choir, a puppet team, a Praise Team, a Praise band, and a father- daughter scripture reading and prayer duo… And this may have been one of our more subdued days. Not that all this is necessary for good worship, or somehow better… just a personal delight for me in my particular worship preferences.
In my younger days in the pastorate, I struggled to give up any “pulpit time.” I was certain that no one could have anything as important to contribute as what I intended to bring from the Word. Seems a little arrogant in retrospect. The stage area can be a place where this on-going conversation between God and his people takes place… It can be a place where many are invited to experience what symbolically is ultimate intimacy… connection with the Almighty and His revealed Word. Too often we turn it into our own little Mt Insecurity, a platform to establish not just God’s authority, but our relevance as pastor or worship leader. The pulpit/ stage area can become our modern day “Holy of Holies” if we are not careful, or even worse… the center of our “pastor personality cult worship.” Jesus’ death tore the curtain in the Temple in two from top to bottom we are told. If he went to such lengths to open the curtain wide, and expose the place of ultimate intimacy with God, we should make sure it remains wide open…
So, do you have any little pet peeves? be gentle with me…
You shall know the truth…
J Beckett