In either a coincidence or a “God-incidence,” just as my Bible Study group had just started First Corinthians, I came across a YouTube video about different groups in Christian churches that ended with a citation from that chapter.
Before you roll your eyes, YouTube videos range from garbage to university lectures. This one is produced by a group called the Christian Faith Archive. They cite serious academic studies and provide the data from those studies. The video is titled “The American Church Lost the Working Class”. The argument is clear. Starting in the 1960s, various mainline Christian churches changed their services to appeal to one group and stopped meeting another group’s needs.
The strategy was straightforward. Identify the fastest-growing demographic in America. Design a church for that demographic and build where that demographic was moving.
That demographic was the college-educated suburban family, and the church moved with them. New churches were planted in the outer-ring suburbs of major cities, not in the urban neighborhoods where working-class families had historically worshiped, and not in the small towns where working-class communities still lived.
These people wanted advice on how to live, not warnings about the afterlife. The buildings had coffee bars and comfortable seats. “David Platt, pastor and theologian, wrote in his 2010 book, Radical, that the American church … [built] a Christianity of comfort and convenience.”
Sermons were different. Sophisticated ministers talk about “important” issues and sometimes tell congregations that certain beliefs are only for the unsophisticated. They don’t have to worry about superstitious ideas like sin and the devil.
The Catholic Church softened its liturgy at Vatican II. Edward Schaefer produces YouTube videos and Substack articles that discuss the old and new liturgies, and other aspects of the service, in detail. His Substack article, Why a Reverent Novus Ordo Will Never Work, includes the video. He explains
We wanted a happy Mass. No more sin, no more repentance, no more hell. Just thoughts of human fulfillment, happiness, and self-actualization. We needed a Mass that would accommodate itself to the changing times, especially to things like the sexual revolution and all manner of things that were rapidly destroying Western culture. So, in 1969, we made up a new happy Mass – the novus ordo Missae, or New Order of Mass.
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They are radically different theologically, even if they share some elements. The New Mass is constructed as a shared meal; the Old Mass is the unbloody renewal of the Sacrifice of Calvary.
What is the difference? Why do the new versions serve one group and not the other?
The prayer of a man who does not know how he will make the mortgage payment is a different prayer than the prayer of a man managing his investment portfolio. Both are legitimate, but the church that loses the former loses something of the raw, unadorned dependence on God that the Psalms were written to express.
John Lennon’s Imagine is a song for people who think they can conceive of a perfect world. Elvis Presley’s “Take My Hand, Precious Lord“ is the plea of someone who can’t take the next step without God’s help.
People dealing with daily bills don’t worry about global warming, sexual issues, or other social issues. They look for Christianity in the most basic Gospel hymns. They seek daily help and understanding of their weaknesses and failures. They read Psalms and Job because they live in a world where seemingly random and unfair things happen.
What kind of church did these people need to keep faith?
Research by sociologist Mark Shibley documented that Pentecostal and charismatic churches in general retained higher proportions of working-class attenders than mainline or evangelical churches during the period of greatest working-class departure.
… Pentecostal worship was participatory and emotionally direct… The theology emphasized the direct activity of God in everyday circumstances. Healing, provision, protection in a way that spoke to people whose daily lives felt precarious.
Eastern Orthodox churches are also seeing an influx of catechumens, including many young men. Their services are ancient. Tradition says Saint John Chrysostom, the Archbishop of Constantinople, developed the liturgy in the fifth century. It is very similar to the older sacrifice-of-Calvary version of the Roman Catholic Mass. The atmosphere is full of hymns, incense, and bells. At solemn times of the service, the clergy are behind closed doors. Everything says respect and reverence. We are in a holy place to participate, not just observe.
We are left with a question. What is the nature of Christianity? The question has been debated since the beginning. The Gnostic version was rejected because Christianity is not limited to those with special knowledge. It is not for those who can help themselves.
Luke 5:32: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
It is for those who need help and know it.
1 Corinthians 1:26-27 (Hart): [L]ook at your vocation: that not many are wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many well-born; rather, God chose the foolish things of the cosmos in order that he might shame the wise, and God chose the weak things of the cosmos in order that he might shame the mighty.