Why Evangelicalism Must Die!
OK, I don’t really want to murder Evangelicalism. Maybe just throttle it a little. Perhaps box its ears. But when I see things like what I discuss below, I am tempted to slip a few unmarked hundreds under the table to my local neighborhood hit man.
Logos Bible Software has just announced one of its newest products: Ministry Letters 1.5. Designed for the pastor with a “busy ministry” and a “full calendar,” this software provides just the right pastoral letter for every ministry situation. It’s promotional copy recognizes that a “well-written letter…can provide a church member or visitor with a greater sense of value as they realize they are appreciated and recognized.” However, the copywriter opines, the modern pastor often has “other pressing matters” that “always seem to rise to the top.” So all this “busy, modern pastor” has to do whenever he hears about a congregant suffering any one of the woes of life in this fallen world is fire up the Logos software, find the appropriate category, and cut and paste to his email.
Now I know that many faithful pastors and churches use form letters for some of the utilitarian aspects of church communication. I’ve never minded getting a form letter thanking me for visiting a church, welcoming my return, and informing of the church’s ministries. Much better than no letter at all, frankly. And some of the routine “business” concerns of a church probably can best be handled in a similar way.
But a perusal of the categories of letters that the “busy, modern pastor” will no longer have to sweat and pray over once he forks over $19.95 to Logos Bible Software includes such occassions as…
Now I know that a wise and caring pastor would just use these letters as a guide or model and still write his own words. But the promotional copy makes it clear that Ministry Letters 1.5 isn’t being marketed to wise and caring pastors, it’s for those with a “busy ministry” and “full calendar,” remember? What “ministry” is the pastor so busy with that he can’t minister by a personal, heartfelt, original letter?
If you’ve been in the business world for any length of time, you’ve seen these things before, books or software containing template letters for all of the different types of mundane communications that are necessary in business. So, of course, here it pops up in Evangeliworld, highly imitative and–as always–a few years behind the curve. This is the flip side of the pastor as expert/orator we discussed in the post “Getting the Role of Pastor Right;” here it’s pastor as CEO, so involved with running his corporation…er, church…that he has to bring in efficiency measures…like automating the very thing he was called to do.
What’s next? Maybe instead of attending services on the Lord’s day, your church will send you a month’s supply of “microwave ready” communion elements, a worship music CD, and the pastor’s sermon available for download on the church web site.
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August 26th, 2005 at 7:04 am
Mark, while I would in some sense consider myself an evangelical, this drives me up the wall as well. If the pastor’s “busy ministry” and “full calendar” don’t allow him the time to have genuine interaction with his people, then he needs to rearrange his calendar! As you note, form letters are appropriate in a few situations, but this is nuts.
I could go on, but we’re on the same page here.
August 26th, 2005 at 7:37 am
When I first saw this (a coworker showed me the promotional sheet we had received at the book store) I honestly thought it was a cleverly done satire. No one could seriously be suggesting that this was a way to do ministry. I was sadly convinced otherwise when I visited the company’s web site and saw it listed as a product.
August 26th, 2005 at 10:00 am
I use Logos software so I got the promotional for this a while back. The saddest part of it is that I wasn’t even that surprised - just sort of shook my head to see if I was reading it right, wondered if I had lost all perspective and this was actually a good thing, dismissed that idea and felt outraged for a couple seconds, then consigned it to the part of my brain where I store all the rest of that stuff under lock and key, lest it burst out and I just quit.
August 26th, 2005 at 10:44 am
Don’t quit, Pat! Instead of just complaining about these things (which I guess is all that I’ve done, really) we should let the Spirit use them to light a fire in our bones for real ministry by God’s new humanity to real humanity.