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What do the Converts Want (adapted from an address at the 2006 Orthodox Christian Laity conference)
By Terry Mattingly
It doesn't take a Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies to tell the difference between a Southern Baptist church and an Orthodox church. You can get some pretty good clues just by walking in the door and looking around. But there are some similarities between the two that might be a little trickier to spot. For instance, let me tell you about what life is like on Sunday nights in a Southern Baptist congregation.
Baptists worship at several different times during the week -- at least they did in the old days when I was growing up as a Southern Baptist pastor's son. One of those times is on Sunday nights. Back in the early 1980s, I was active in a church in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in which the typical Sunday morning crowd would be about 200 to 300 people, which is rather small for a Baptist church, but fairly normal for an Orthodox parish. Then the crowd on Sunday night would be from 40 to 45 people.
You can read the whole address here and I highly recommend it.
2 comments:
Great article. I had no idea I was pegged so well! ;) I do take issue with one point though: The idea that if you raise the kids immersed in the faith it will stick. Having watched the children of several faithful, devout, and sincere Christian friends (most of whom homeschool too)fall away from the faith, I feel that Mr. Mattingly made it sound a bit too formulaic.
As the Founding Pastor of a great new (at the time) church, I think I understand the need to convert or re-vert to greater orthodoxy. There is such pressure from Fundamentalists - who feel as though they are guardians of Orthodoxy - to understand, worship, and believe exactly as they do that many are wanting to get back closer to the Tree. People want something that's REAL, a faith that's honest, and a manner of worship that's personal, one that doesn't seek to conform everyone to the same model.
I was encouraged by a large Association of churches to start a new kind of church, one which would attract the unchurched. The Association and our Denomination agreed to a salary for 18 months, after which we would depend on this fledgling congregation to take over our support. We began with my family and one other, planning our ministry around the needs of those to whom we were ministering. Although we remained affiliated with our denomination, our ministry was aimed at the needs of people from every walk of life. This meant, among other things, that we were open and tolerant of all who came our way. We trusted the Holy Spirit to direct our paths, and He never let us down. We saw Christ as the Head of the church, not a denomination. We experienced what I believe was real Orthodoxy, allowing ourselves to be conformed by His Spirit into the church we felt He was leading us to give birth to. After 21 years we retired, leaving a loving congregation of multi-talented and gifted people, worshiping in a 25,000 sq. foot, 1600 seat state-of-the-art Worship Center. If I'm bragging, I'm bragging on God! He made it happen! And He was the one who touched the lives of those fantastic converts and re-converts, bringing them into an exciting communisty of believers!
I wrote a book in 2008 to share some of the principles and strategies God used to favor our ministry. God may give you some useful ideas should you want to read it. Check out http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/ABCsOfMinistry.html or see the video introduction at http://youtube.com/watch?v=fzA-XHtyRS4 Or contact me: fsdeh@embarqmail.com
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