Why Our Obsession with Glory is Hurting Our Congregations

A few years ago I was visiting a church for the first time. As I walked in I was greeted by some nice folks, was handed a bulletin, and found a seat somewhere on the side of the sanctuary. After the countdown clock on the two large screens hit zero the lights flashed onto the stage, the band started playing a song that was one hip shake away from a dance party, and the worship leader shouted out, “How ya’ll doing today!” followed shortly by, “Let’s stand together and clap those hands!” Around me I watched as some people stood up and reluctantly forced their hands together on every second beat, while others stood smiling wide clapping with fervor as the band jumped around on stage. Scattered beside each camp were some people sitting, others standing with their head down or covering their babies’ ears, and a few talking in the lobby until the music would end.
For me this experience was expected. Most of the evangelical churches I have visited over the years put on some variation of this same production: extraordinarily happy people greet me outside of the church building with posters reading “Welcome home!” and “We’re glad you’re here!”, a connection team welcomes me inside and hands me a bulletin as another member offers to help find me a seat, young attractive people on stage sing a few of the top 50 worship and praise songs listed on Spotify, an excited hipster dressed pastor preaches a sermon on Life Hacks, regular attenders small talk in the lobby after the service, after which everyone leaves satiated and on a spiritual high excited to come back next week so they can wash, rinse, repeat. All in all, it’s what I expect a church to be when I visit, and every time I leave frustrated and worn down.
I don’t blame the individual church for this so much as I do the revivalistic culture it’s learned from. It can be extremely challenging to break from the mold and try something different and can be even more challenging to identify the mold and reshape it. Historically, evangelical churches grew out of the First, Second, and Third Great Awakenings and have been trying to recreate them ever since. From the Billy Graham Crusades to traveling preachers in pop-up tents to the Passion Conferences, evangelicals have been trying desperately to get back to the days when thousands would sprint to the aisle to accept Jesus into their heart. Every week churches fill with people waiting for their next emotional high and every week worship leaders and pastors alike try to give it to them. This prioritization of celebration and short term happiness over Jesus’ death on the cross has trained Christians to be fragile, hyper-spiritual people whose assurance of salvation is as hopeful as a ship taking on water.
As long as evangelicalism is focused more on glory and less on the cross it will continue to fail to provide people with the eternal hope offered in the Gospel and will leave them steadily unsure whether they have done enough to warrant God’s grace and love. Glory based music hopes to be an emotional precursor to prepare people for a thirty-minute bible talk and is as spiritually fleeting as its final note. Glory based sermons that teach timeless principles are as satisfying for the soul as any show on Netflix. What both have in common is their desire to make people happy and be welcoming to the new person. In trying so hard to grow numerically and retain every single person that walks through the door evangelicalism is leaving people stagnant, frustrated, and tired. While the church has thought that prioritizing glory and being seeker friendly would allow them to reach their neighbors and make disciples of all nations, it has instead left them searching for new ways to get people through their doors as they frantically try to come up with creative new programs congregants can invite their friends to. As they have obsessed over their weekly number of new converts and have set quotas for their staff, their pastors are leaving ministry, burning out at an alarming rate, and suffering from depression and anxiety caused by the constant pressure of needing to always be on, while simultaneously never truly achieving the standard of success set for themselves.
Evangelical churches are dying. Their congregants are tired and worn down, and as pastors and worship leaders continue to try and become the next Hillsong their people are being thrown by the wayside. The only hope for evangelicalism is to look to the cross, where Jesus promises: “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matt. 11:28–30).”
For pastors and worship leaders alike the turn from glory to the cross is to constantly wash congregants in the message that we are sinners in desperate need of a Savior. It is to stop yelling at people to clap their hands and instead remind them that Jesus promises their souls rest in the reality that their constant turning from God is not enough to keep them from His grace. It is to encourage them in the message that Jesus paid our debt by dying for our sins and taking on the wrath of God. It is to assure them that if they believe by faith in the Gospel message that Jesus died for weary sinners and was raised to life victorious over sin, death, and the devil that they have union with Christ. It is to tell them that their identity is now in Jesus and regardless of what they have done Jesus loves them and has made them new. It is to constantly remind them that there is no point they have to get to in their walk with God to maintain their salvation. It is to tell them every single Sunday that all of Scripture points to Jesus and to explain who Jesus is and who we are in light of that. It is to point them to Jesus and then when it seems like they understand the Gospel it is to continue to point them to Jesus and to never stop pointing them to Jesus ever.
When the church focuses not on glory but on the cross it gauges its barometer of success on whether or not Jesus was the focus every single week and works hard to ensure that nothing else gets in the way. This looks radically different than the majority of evangelical churches I have been to because it cares less about outward aesthetic and more about pleasing God. A church that focuses on the cross will have congregants who are firm in their faith, whose assurance of salvation cannot be shaken and whose motivation to love is because Christ first loved them. A church that focuses on the cross is a church that finds daily rest in the Gospel of Jesus.
