The PGA, golf tournaments, and sports networks are lamenting the absence of Tiger Woods for the rest of 2008. Everyone predicts that the number of people watching golf will plummet.
It's like when your pastor takes the week off, and you schedule a guest speaker. The less-than-faithful stay home.
I read last week about a megachurch pastor who, on his blog, reamed his parishioners for not attending when he took the week off and a guest speaker (a really high-calibre minister, no less) filled the pulpit. The pastor, Brian Jones, noting the "pitiful" attendance, wrote:
Many leaders at [our church] wonder if people chose not to come because you knew I was not speaking.Please understand that if that turns out to be the case, honest to God you won’t hear me speak until 2009. I will hire first-year Bible college interns who can barely chew gum and talk at the same time to rotate the speaking responsibilities for the next 6.5 months.
I will not have any part in helping build a church around a person, personality, or particular style of preaching.
The issue here is discipleship. Are we trying to put on a “religious show” where people will attend based on the person presenting God’s Word, or are we fashioning a gates-of-hell-storming-community of disciples?
Wow, there's a gutsy pastor. And now, to draw a parallel to the truly significant world of sports--what does this say about golf "fans" who only watch if Tiger is playing?
Career-wise, I've been hanging around and writing about and cheering on churches and pastors for the past 25 years as my denomination's Communications Director.
Our pastor only tells a select few when he'll be gone. This way, people can't plan in advance. On the Sunday he's gone, suddenly its announced that, oh yeah, the pastor is on vacation today. He does that quite intentionally because otherwise, yes, people will stay away.