The contemporary church is pushing to reach those unchurched or dechurched, as well as being more of an open door to new avenues of outreach. They are trying to get the evangelical gospel message of Jesus Christ to every possible person, no matter their walk of life. The traditional church is also trying to reach people for the cause of Christ, but holding closely to their traditional methods of worship and evangelism. Is there anything wrong with either of these methods? Absolutely not! However, there seems to be more of a war battling between these two styles of church. They are often times too busy slinging mud to realize how much these churches have to offer each other.
The contemporary church is doing a great job of reaching the masses, however, their downfall is that they are not staying around. The front door is wide open for all types of people, but he back door is just as wide open. Francis Chan wrote in the September 2008 issue of Worship Leader Magazine of a gang member who joined the church after his radical transformation, but left the church after a couple of months. His response to why he left was that when he joined the church, he was not use to people being nice only one day a week, where the gang was loyal 24/7. WOW!!!
The traditional church has this going for them, they push for education. There is more than just Sunday School for the children, but adult discipleship and a way of helping people feel like they belong. The contemporary church has more adult converts than the traditional church, it is just a simple fact. Therefore, who should have more adult classes? It just makes sense!
The traditional church could learn from the outreach techniques of reaching out to the people who are unchurched, dechurched, or just simply burned out. To open up their minds is not to jump to being a totally contemporary style, but it does open the door to new people.
The war between traditional and contemporary has to end! The war has pushed these two sides so far apart that they cannot see the hurt it is causing their own efforts. Each church is unique and a special part of the body of Christ... one church may serve as a hand and another a foot, totally different in their use, but both extremely important to the overall cause of Christ.
Instead of battling, let's pull together and draw on each other's strengths. We have to put our own personal preferences aside and look at the big picture... there are lost souls at stake, and most importantly we are to focus on worshipping God in all of our actions. Let's reach them and GROW them for the cause of Christ!
