We do not need to go far from our news sources or doorsteps to realize that we live in complex and uncertain times. We are constantly bombarded with good and bad news almost twenty-four hours a day, leaving us overwhelmed and needing guidance. From war to financial uncertainty to political infighting, the constant stream of news is crushing. But perhaps it has always been this way.
“Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”
This bombardment of information is brutal enough for adults, but it can be impossible for our children and grandchildren. In the New Testament, the Apostles guide and advise on detecting and avoiding “False Prophets.” But the Apostles did not live in an age of instant worldwide communication and electronic false prophets. The mission is the same, but the challenges are quite different.
The Apostles’ job was to take Christianity from near obscurity to become the dominant world religion. We have inherited the job of protecting that dominant world religion from returning to near obscurity. Their battle and ours are tremendous and, at times, overwhelming.
Learning From Experience
My business life was filled with the challenge of constant improvement and challenging ourselves to find different and better ways to accomplish our goals. When we failed at a task, we did some honest introspection about results and accomplishments and a deep assessment of what worked and what did not. In short: “What do we need to change to get on the path to success?
In our first article, we mentioned that church attendance has declined to the point where only 21% of Americans attend church weekly, and 57% of people now attend rarely or never. Belief in religion as an influence in our lives has also declined to the point where only 22% of Americans believe religion’s influence is increasing, while 75% thought the influence was declining.
There are many reasons for this shift in our world, but it would get a failing grade if this were a business. When things are not on the path you seek, you must ask yourself what must change, or you are on a glide path to extinction. Jesus gave us brains, faith, and the skills to deploy them for society and religion. Sitting around waiting for the Fifth Great Awakening is not going to work. On August 3, 2023, I wrote about the Great Awakenings and some things I felt needed to happen to see a Fifth. I will not try to rehash that here since that article is available with this link.
As in business, we need a mid-course correction to get back on track. This is where CCM can offer a learning experience and a path to a Fifth Awakening. As Christians, if we are not constantly asking what is working and what is not, we are losing the fight. My assessment is that right now, we are losing the battle. We are clinging to all the old ways, hoping for a miracle that will not happen by itself. We must preserve the best of the past and move forward to what will work in the modern world. We do not need to give in to false prophets, nor do we need to ignore the opportunities in front of us.
Getting to Everyone
I started this discussion with a remembrance from Dr. Howard Edington, and this is a good spot for another. One Sunday, he surprised us by saying he had little concern for the 1,200 or so attending worship that day. The real challenge was how we reach the millions who are not there. This is the challenge for the Fifth Great Awakening. In an increasingly secular world with constant distraction and conflict, how do you reach those not in attendance?
We have some friends who are faithful Southern Baptists. Years ago, one of their daughters became involved with the Passion Conferences in Atlanta, and not knowing what it was, we declined an invitation to attend. Like much with CCM, this is another area of criticism, but if we open our eyes, this might be one formula for success.
Passion Conferences
The Passion Conferences are organized by a group of well-known and influential pastors who all reach their (parishioners) audiences through electronic media.
The Passion Movement was started by Louie and Shelley Giglio in 1985 in Waco, Texas, as a college campus-based ministry. In 1997, they held their first national conference in Austin, Texas, which attracted 2,000 students. Fast-forward to January 2024, and the conference filled the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta with over 50,000 people. Many attendees were college-aged, but I also saw some grey hair in the audience. In the list of videos in our second installment of these articles, I specifically included several from the Passion Conferences as a reference.
The conferences are high-tech affairs, and some of the criticisms I have read apply to some extent. But this differs from the 1700s, and you are not competing with the local tavern for worshippers. We now live in a world of constant distraction and temptation. You cannot compete in that world with a two-hour worship meeting on Sunday, which is one reason we see church attendance continue to be drained away. The Devil travels the airwaves and the internet at a speed traditional worship cannot keep up.
A Fifth Great Awakening
You can argue about the content and theology, but the mainline churches have argued among themselves about those issues for centuries. You must get potential converts in the doors to have a chance to preach and teach them. You must compete with and defeat the distractions to win.
Billy Graham was the first mainstream minister to understand the value of mass media communication. From the late 1940s until 2005, Graham traveled the world holding revivals titled “Billy Graham Crusades.” He was so influential that he became a Presidential advisor and was instantly recognizable worldwide. Graham’s popularity can be seen in the size of his audience and his enduring legacy to Christianity. He regularly drew nightly audiences of more than 30,000. Just here in Georgia, he held a five-day event in Atlanta that drew an estimated 311,000 worshipers.
His revival in New York in 1957 lasted from May 15 until September 1 and is still the largest evangelical event ever conducted there. The revivals drew an average of more than 17,000 worshipers daily, and there were notable events where he drew audiences of 100,000 to 125,000.
However, even Billy Graham was not above criticism, which, with hindsight, seems impossible. Liberal theologians, Protestant fundamentalists, and proponents of racial segregation complained about the crusades. Even Martin Luther King, Jr. was, at times, a supporter and, at other times, a critic. Breaking with tradition is a difficult task, and not all survive under the weight of criticism.
“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”
Several things differentiated Graham from the current evangelical movement. First, he was associated with the Southern Baptist Church, a recognizable and respected denomination. Second, he avoided scandals, both financial and moral. Third, even if someone disagreed with him, his theology did not vary, and he remained true to his Baptist traditions. Fourth, his appeal was universal and cut across denominational lines. In a time of darkness, he was a shining light and remained so until his death.
Some believe Billy Graham’s time was the Fifth Great Awakening, and perhaps it was. Before we criticize televangelists, we need to remember that he was the first. But with technology, the world moves at a different pace, and we need another Great Awakening.
Lighting a Candle to Defeat the Darkness
The direction of Christianity in America and the world will continue to be scrutinized and criticized. I could write an article on this every week forever, as the developments and the criticism never stop. But for sure, I have become less of a critic and more of a fan of CCM.
If half the effort that I see generating criticism of CCM had been directed toward building an acceptable alternative, then we might have a whole different Christian landscape. Criticism is easy, creativity is hard, and it takes vision.
“Now it's time for another revival. America can't be saved by politics, and the answer isn't in being a Republican, Democrat, or Independent. Our economists and educators can't save us. Our entertainers offer diversions without meaning and our technology gives us progress without morality. We've seldom been in greater need for inner revitalization, and conditions are urgent.”
We know that electronic media can reach hundreds of millions of people with the right message at the extremes. I am aware of no other format that has that reach and can be harnessed for good. Yet our mainstream and traditional denominations have been asleep at the switch for decades.
Any main denomination could have replicated the format and work of the Word of Faith Movement with its own denominational principles. As a Methodist, I can testify that the denomination has wasted thirty years on a schism that has let the church’s families and youth slip away into secularism.
The good news is that there is no barrier to entry in any technological endeavor these days. Any denomination can learn from and create a format for youth that counteracts the secular forces attacking our faith. But they cannot do it without rethinking what will bring people back to the church. Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, and others all have the financial resources to do this and more. Many are unwilling to make those resources available to those who challenge their existing worship format.
Early Contemporary Christian Music
In researching this article, I ran across an excerpt from the book Songs I Love to Sing, and there was a disclosure there I had not heard before. In 1994, Billy Graham was looking for a way to better engage the youth with crusades and began implementing “youth nights.” He and his staff put together several nights of free youth concerts in Cleveland Stadium. The events were centered on music by the most popular Christian bands of the era. Graham had some background in youth motivation as the first employee of the Youth for Christ organization back in 1944.
The event featured Billy Graham, of course, but also Cleveland Cavaliers’ point guard Mark Price, successful crossover artist Michael W. Smith, and the hottest Christian band of the time, “dc Talk.” Graham’s grandson, Jonathan Lotz, explained the event: “This is not entertainment, but an effort to reach youths with the gospel.” The events drew 65,000 young people each of two nights.
Billy Graham gave a shortened sermon he billed as “Straight Talk from a Caring Adult.” In it, he referenced Kurt Cobain’s recent death and even Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day. He found a format the youth responded to and was off and running. One attendee was quoted: “I love the music. I think this is what heaven is going to be like. I think heaven will be jammin’ and kickin’.” Other journalists applauded Graham’s efforts to appeal to the younger crowd and hailed his innovation to “revamp gospel delivery.”
If we think this was a calm and demure event, this note concerning Cliff Barrows’ concert coordination role gives us some insight.
Being the sponsor of a rock concert brought him an unexpected new chore, too. Left to themselves, singers ran, jumped, climbed, did handstands, and moved constantly and quickly about the stage and the props. The next week, Barrows took calls from crusade insurers, and at future concerts he curtailed musicians’ more rambunctious moves.
Just as Graham pioneered the televangelist movement, he was apparently the catalyst behind Christian rock concerts.
Almost Closing For Now
I am sure I will revisit this topic in the future, but I want to sit back and see what happens in this worship genre for a while. Bringing back my original question from Dr. Edington all those years ago in an updated format:
“You are walking home from work late one night on a dimly lit street and encounter a group of young people talking enthusiastically and loudly.
Would it elicit a sense of concern or fear in you?
How would your perspective change if you knew they were headed home from a Passion Conference?”
For our final article, I want to look at the often criticized rock star status of some within CCM.
This series has required considerable reading and study, and the list of references grew so long that adding them to the end of each article proved distracting. I will link to them at the bottom of each article so that they stay handy.
You Can View All Articles in This Series with This Link
