Wednesday November 3, 2004
The salad bar of faiths
Living in this relatively small community, I find my choice of radio stations somewhat limited — certainly when compared to Toronto or Vancouver.
When I first moved here, there was an easy listening station that I liked. Unfortunately, it soon decided that easy listening didn\’t attract enough easy listeners, so it switched to soft rock, an oxymoron if I ever heard one.
I turned to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC wasn\’t always easy listening, but most of the time it was at least literate and intelligent.
This fall, however, program management decided to change some programs. Now, instead of smart, I get smart-aleck. Instead of mental stimulation, I get mindless banter.
Don\’t get me wrong — I still enjoy most of the CBC. But at a certain point in the day, I turn the radio off. I prefer silence. Or else I substitute my own programming from my collection of CDs, tapes, and old vinyl LPs.
Sampling the smorgasbord
Maybe that\’s what a lot of people are doing about their religious practices, too. The people who study religious observance – Reg Bibby in Canada, Barna and Gallup in the U.S. – say that although church attendance is dropping, interest in spirituality remains high.
A lot of people seem to be sampling the smorgasbord of faith expressions available and putting together their own eclectic program of beliefs and practices.
The other day, a small group of us got together to plan some coming worship services. We didn\’t solve anything. We noted that some churches have a high population of grey heads; others have mainly under-45s. Some sing traditional hymns; others use almost exclusively “praise” choruses. Some use only piano, or organ; others have full rock bands, with drums, guitars, and enough amplifiers to fry eggs.
Me, I\’m a “folkie” from way back. I don\’t want to be entertained by some performer\’s pyrotechnics. I want to sing along with the music. And I want to think along with the message.
The need to gather together To receive this column regularly via e-mail, send a request to [email protected]. E-mail subscribers also get excerpts from correspondence about these columns. Please forward a copy of this column to anyone who might be interested in subscribing.
If you want to order my books, you can call 1-800-663-2775 in Canada, 1-800-328-0200 in the U.S., or order them on-line at the Wood Lake Books website.
For a lighter look at ethics, faith, and life, I recommend Ralph Milton\’s weekly e-newsletter Rumors. You can subscribe to it at the Wood Lake Books home page in Ralph Milton\’s Site, or by sending a note directly to [email protected].
It\’s also worth pursuing Richard Fairchild\’s United Online site. Another site worth visiting is David Keating\’s \”SeemslikeGod\” page.
But I may be a dying breed. One of these days, the worship style of my church will change. It may reflect the tastes of a different minister. Or of a different membership. It may even be done to attract a different membership.
Will I welcome the changes? Suffer them silently? Go down fighting? Or, like the radio, will I simply turn off the institutional church and turn to my own internal programming?
The church has traditionally been a community, not a lone traveler. Its faith has been a collective consensus.
It\’s hard enough to be “good” – whatever that means – when one has a community to help keep you on track. It\’s much harder when you stand all alone.
So I suspect that people naturally want to gather. If they prefer to pick and choose from the salad bar of faiths, maybe it\’s because too many churches are chasing the same clientele.
Maybe, instead of searching for a one-size-fits-all magic formula, we just need more churches, offering much more diversity in worship styles.
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Copyright © 2002 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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