The End of My Methodological Snobbery

The final post (seriously) in a series of reflections on how twenty-six years of ministry have changed me.

I thought I closed out this series with my last post, but it turns out I have at least one more reflection to share. This one is about something I unlearned during my ten years at Preston Road.

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Many of my friends were surprised when I went to Preston Road, because on the surface it seemed like a bad fit.

One mentor told me he couldn’t imagine a preacher and a church more ill-suited for one another.

It was hard to disagree.

Preston Road’s worship gathering oozed formality, with suits and ties abounding.¹

I typically preached in jeans, a polo shirt, and Chuck Taylors.

Even when singing newer songs, the chorale-based acapella worship style had more of an old-fashioned sound.

I preferred instrumental, guitar-driven, contemporary worship.

Except for women passing communion plates during the gathering, it looked and felt like a traditional Church of Christ.²

No one had ever described me as a traditional Church of Christ preacher, and I never wanted to be categorized as one.

The church I attempted to plant in Round Rock was not even going to be a Church of Christ.

As a young preacher, trying to imitate my progressive preaching heroes, I thought it was my job to aggressively push for change.

I once preached a sermon on why change for change’s sake was the only way to prevent traditions from becoming idols.

As an aspiring church planter, I mocked established churches too stuck in their ways to adapt to an ever-changing culture.

If you need evidence of God’s sense of humor, may I submit my ending up at an old-school, traditional, suit-wearing Church of Christ as Exhibit “A.”

Preston Road Church of Christ Sanctuary

It’s a joke I’m glad the Lord played on me.

At Preston Road, I learned to appreciate the value of stability.

Preston Road was financially stable in a way I had never experienced at previous churches.

No minister or ministry ever lacked the necessary resources for accomplishing our mission.

The Preston Road membership was also stable.

There was never a drumbeat of progressive restlessness demanding to change the status quo. ³

The Preston Road leadership was stable.

I don’t remember the elders ever making a rash decision to change something in reaction to internal pressure from members or external pressure from our culture.

They were consistently measured and deliberate in their decision-making.

And yes, I think at times they were too risk-averse, but—and this is a big but—having seen the flip-side of church leaders shipwrecking their congregations by taking too many risks, especially financial risks, I came to see and appreciate the value of their conservative approach to decision-making.⁴

At Preston Road, I discovered how much easier it is to do good from a stable platform than from one always on the verge of collapsing.

I recently heard an elder describe his congregation as a “progressive Church of Christ.”

I told him whether a church is classified as progressive or traditional is no longer as important as whether it is dying, surviving, or thriving.

What good is a progressive church unable to pay its bills?

A stable, traditional church with a committed membership and consistent generosity has a better chance of doing more good in the long run.⁵

At Preston Road I unlearned the methodological snobbery that had characterized much of my early ministry.

What I now find most important, is not how hip, cool, or relevant a church appears to be on its website, but rather how well a congregation’s structures, practices, and traditions facilitate ever-increasing Christlikeness in its members.

Whether a church uses old-fashioned Sunday morning Bible classes or laid back coffee house gatherings to build community and stimulate spiritual growth matters not to me.

I can appreciate churches inspired and nourished by traditional hymns sung acapella and those by new songs led by a band.⁶

So long as these varying methods and styles empower a church to incarnate the presence of Christ in its neighborhood, I support whatever is most effective for each congregation.

Please don’t hear what I’m not saying.⁷

It would be great if every church had the vision and budget for an R&D department committed to methodological experimentation.

Not for the purpose of being different or more hip than previous generations or other churches, and not at the expense of what the church is already doing, but to find additional ways of engaging its neighbors in the process of following and becoming more like Christ.

One can explore new, different, and hopefully better ways of doing something without also disparaging the old ways of doing it.

I know from experience that while the majority of these experiments won’t yield lasting improvements, many of the tried and true (read traditional) methods will remain.

Which means our imperfect ways of actually doing church are still better than our perfect, but unimplemented—and often unimplementable—ideas about how to finally get church right.

I’m grateful to Preston Road for helping me unlearn my methodological snobbery and teaching me to appreciate what I don’t always prefer.

1. I’m describing Preston Road as it appeared to me in 2012, not as it is now. There are definitely a few less ties.

2. While the format was more traditional, the theology was not. As one elder said during my interview, “Preston Road is the most traditional progressive Church of Christ in Dallas.” He was right. I enjoyed preaching to such a theologically diverse and curious church.

3. The one exception being the fuller inclusion of women in public leadership roles advocated by a number of long-time members waiting patiently to see more progress in this area.

4. The biggest risk I saw them take in the ten years I was there, for the reasons stated above, was inviting me to be their preacher.

5. I love seeing how Preston Road is thriving in a post-pandemic world.

6. The older I get, the more I appreciate the old songs. My favorites are old hymns reworked into a more contemporary style.

7. Shout out to Reggie McNeal for this double-negative disclaimer.