Shouts of Joy, the Sound of Weeping

In the book of Ezra there is an interesting account in chapter 3. And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.


It is no secret that there is a clash of culture in churches today. With many churches having 5 generations of people, the cultural likes and dislikes are enormous. In Ezra's day, the temple was being rebuilt after God had allowed its destruction after nationwide disobedience and turning away from God. In the midst of the celebration because the foundation had been laid, the older priest, Levites and family heads wept because they remembered what the temple had been like. They realized while it would be a wonderful thing to have the temple rebuilt, it would never be like it was.

Today, in the US, church attendance is down overall. The only place it is increasing is in mega churches and churches that are engaging younger attenders, largely tailoring their church services and programming to accomodate today's consumer mentality. The clash goes far beyond musical style (hymns versus contemporary songs, choirs and orchestras versus small "worship teams"). It goes to length of services, the shorter the better; offer less programming, people are too busy to do much at church; the way a church looks, don't offend anyone by making the church look like a church, make it look like a big box store. Make sure you use plenty of theatrical lighting, maybe some haze, kick the decibels up and make people feel like they are at a concert.

In the end, people will come to faith in Christ because they see something in us that makes sense for their own lives. Even in the busyness of life, people want to belong. They want genuine friends that add to the quality of their lives and their families. Maybe our church services should simply be the place where we encounter God, in whatever cultural form it takes, and then we design times and ways for people to connect. Church culture has an interesting way of cycling, in fact, some church life watchers think the cycle away from the present wave has already started. Take a look around the next time you are at a church service. Maybe in the midst of the celebration shouting you will hear some weeping.