By Sarah Beasley Rein
Lakeside Presbyterian Senior Pastor Tyson Taylor greets a young guest
Each week as my husband and I worship with our faith family at Lakeside Presbyterian Church, I’m observing my children. Sometimes I don’t have a choice because they are poking me to ask for a pen or whispering too loudly with one of their cousins. But other times, I just get to smile as they sing hymns loudly or mimic their dad as he’s taking notes.
I grew up as a music minister’s daughter, and sitting on a church pew feeling bored was a childhood rite of passage. And, growing up Baptist, that meant a sermon on both Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings. Words I didn’t understand and long passages of scripture were the norm. As I entered a prolonged, entitled phase in my later elementary and teenage years (my mother can attest that this lasted far longer than it should have), I decided that the church had a responsibility to at least try to make things more interesting. Surely throwing in some jokes or snazzier music wasn’t too much to ask.
I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. As I recently discussed with my pastor, Rev. Tyson Taylor, the 1990s ushered in what we now think of as the “seeker-sensitive” movement. Churches across the country set out to make their services feel more accessible – often with good intentions of drawing in the unchurched. But the driving impetus for the pastor shifted from, “Was Christ honored and the flock fed?” to, “What did people experience in our service today?”
Tyson lamented that this shift caused churches to avoid controversial topics, difficult biblical passages, and sermons that called for congregants to see themselves as sinners. He’s in good company. On a similar note, John Piper has warned pastors who would “avoid anything approaching the kind of preaching that would confront people with their sin and would risk making them unhappy.”
I confess it took me until my 30s to truly grasp that the worship service wasn’t about me at all. Now I’m grateful to sit under the teaching of a pastor who will take over a year to preach through the book of Matthew, no matter how I feel about it.
It’s impossible for us to fully empathize with the challenges facing pastors in today’s culture. What a high standard and calling. What a responsibility to study and present the weekly feast of God’s Word. What a burden to love their church well as they speak truth that gladdens our hearts but also pierces them with conviction. Church – love your pastor well by praying for him and encouraging him in his work. And pastors – stand firm in the truth and lead us always to Christ. We need Him so.
Sarah Rein and her husband, Trey, are raising their four children in Brandon, where Trey is a school principal and Sarah is home a LOT. Luckily she’s an introvert who enjoys reading and learning about new things and people. The Reins love their church family at Lakeside Presbyterian and coffee.