I once met with the pulpit committee of a certain church about the possibility of me becoming that church’s next pastor. I don’t normally take Tonya along for such meetings, but this committee wanted to meet her as well. So, we made the drive to a designated restaurant that split the mileage distance between our home and the church. Once we were all at the restaurant, we ordered our food and proceeded with the discussion at hand.

The church was one that church growth experts call a “graying” congregation. That simply means that it had a lot more old folks than young folks. In this case, the “graying” was evidenced by the pulpit committee, which consisted of two men and three women. Each committee member was over 55, and the chairman was well into his 70s.

Much of the meeting consisted of the committee members (particularly the three women) bemoaning the fact that their church had become a shell of its former self in regards to attendance. The church’s heyday had been in the 1960s and 1970s, and the women wanted things back to the way they used to be. Whereas the church had once boasted an attendance of close to 200 on Sunday mornings, those numbers were then down to 50 or so.

According to the committee, the main culprit in their church’s declining attendance was a megachurch’s new satellite campus that had set up shop just a few miles down the road from their church and was pulling in large numbers of people, especially young couples. In case you don’t know what a satellite campus is, let me explain how it works. A megachurch rents a large building in either a different town or at least another part of town and sends some of their staff to that new site to work it. It is the job of those staff members to get the new congregation up and running. That means using social media, knocking on doors, handing out flyers, renting billboards, or whatever else it takes to get folks in the door.

The megachurch pays the bills to equip the site with the best of everything. The audio and video systems are cutting edge. Comfortable chairs are used instead of padded pews. Contemporary Christian songs are used instead of classic hymns. A praise-and-worship team and band are used rather than a song leader and choir. Words on a big screen are used instead of hymn books.

The target group for any satellite campus will always be young couples with children. If something appeals to that generation, that’s what will be prioritized. That means youth programs and lots of them. It also means casual dress, modern translations of the Bible, and sermons that focus less on doctrine and more on issues relevant to the ones such couples face today.

Every satellite campus has a campus pastor, but these pastors don’t normally do any preaching. Instead, the sermons from the lead pastor of the megachurch are piped in via video. The campus pastor’s job is to manage the staff, make sure the building is always up to spec, collect the offerings, and funnel everything back to the megachurch. Whatever vision the megachurch has for the satellite campus, the campus pastor is responsible for implementing it. He might also do some counseling and fundraising, but no matter what he does he is always working under the lead pastor of the megachurch.

Okay, so this is what the members of that pulpit committee were up against. A massive church that was located about 30 minutes from their church had launched a satellite campus in their town, and that satellite campus had become the hot new thing in that town. So, the question those pulpit committee members wanted me to answer was, “How would you go about getting our church back to its rightful place of prominence in our town?”

Oh, and did I mention that they didn’t want to convert to contemporary Christian music, use any translation other than the K.J.V., forego Sunday night or Wednesday night services, update their old sanctuary in any way, or change anything about their Sunday School organization? Also, they expected me to wear a coat and tie every time I preached. But they wanted to grow. That’s a line I remember very well: “We want to grow.”

Well, according to Tonya I was far too blunt and far too honest in my answer, even though I really wasn’t trying to tick those people off or hurt their feelings. All I told them was that their church might never get back to what it had been in the ’60s and ’70s but that didn’t mean that God had forsaken it. That church still had an important ministry, one that perhaps should focus on the elderly who still loved that style of church. After all, that generation is every bit as important in God’s eyes as the younger generation. I explained that times had changed and that the church simply wasn’t going to attract young couples by using a church model from the 1950s. Basically, I said something to the effect, “I can’t promise you that I can lead your church back to where it once was. All I can promise you is that I will faithfully preach the Bible, visit the sick, and lead the church in the direction in which God burdens me to lead it. And as long as what we do is pleasing to Him, we’ll be fine.”

I myself thought that was a reasonable answer, and as Tonya and I left the restaurant the committee chairman leaned toward my ear and said, “We’ll let you know if we are interested, but I feel confident that you’ll be hearing from us soon.” That led me to believe that the meeting had gone pretty well. However, once Tonya and I got in the car she informed me that I had thrown cold water all over that committee, particularly those three women, and she had serious doubts that I would ever get a call. When I attempted to defend myself by saying, “But everything I told them was the truth,” she responded, “Yes it was, but those women wanted you to tell them that their church is as great as they think it is and that there is no doubt that it can get back to what it used to be.”

And so how did things turn out? Well, as you’ve probably already guessed, I’m still waiting on that call. Evidently that chairman was in the minority in regards to his assessment of the meeting. I really don’t know what became of that church or who they elected as pastor. What I do know is that the entire experience was a memorable one for Tonya and myself. Rarely have we seen the stark conflict between the older generation of churchgoers and the younger generation on better display than we saw at that restaurant that night. Church growth experts have even coined a term for this conflict. They call it “worship wars.”

Really, though, the reality of the situation is that the “worship wars” lessen a little more with each passing year. The reason why is obvious: The older generation is dying off. You see, with very few exceptions, the “winning” side in these wars is already predetermined. It’s just a matter of how long it takes the fighting to reach its inevitable conclusion of the younger generations’ preferences becoming the norm. Until then we pastors are left to stand in the gap between our members who favor the old way of doing church and those who favor the new way.

I don’t mind telling you that this is a difficult challenge. Somehow, though, in the midst of it all, we must try to stay in tune with God and hear His still, small voice of direction, guidance, and spiritual discernment. Sometimes that voice promotes the new, but other times it promotes the old. Each situation and each congregation is unique. As I said, it’s a tough balancing act for a pastor. I just wish that more churchgoers on both sides would be open-minded to the other side’s position. Even more important than that, I wish that all of us Christians would be more open-minded to what God wants as opposed to what we want.