We are deep in the heart of Lent as I am writing this. As a church musician, I am often thinking weeks ahead of where we actually are in the Church Year, as I plan and prepare music for upcoming services.

Tonight, I was thinking about Holy Week and Easter and wondering why so many Christians don’t walk the full-length of Holy Week. Or why some churches have very little to offer their members in terms of Holy Week services. Why is it OK for the church’s softball league to play in a game on Maundy Thursday? Is forfeiting a baseball game a worse thing than being in church remembering the start of the Three Days (or Triduum, as it is officially called)?

Why do we not hear of (many) Ascension Day services? Or of many Christians making a big deal out of Pentecost, the third major Church festival along with Christmas and Easter? And why do so few churches have services on Christmas Day? Since when did Christmas become primarily a “family day”? Often those who scream the loudest about “no Christ in Christmas” are the ones going to churches that have no Christmas Day services and maybe even nothing on Christmas Eve. Since when is the family more important than worshiping Christ?

I am very concerned about the state of Christianity in the USA. (I am concerned about it other places, too, but since I live here, I will focus my remarks on what I know best.) I believe that while we have many people who love the Lord and seek to follow Christ in this country, we have way too many “non-denominational” churches who believe that they are “doing it right” and yet, they have severed most if not all ties with the Church of the New Testament. Oh, they may have their “12 elders” to mimic the apostles (and that makes them “authentic”) but in terms of the way they worship and think, it is so far from the traditions that St. Paul commanded be followed and not let go of (see 1 Corinthians 11:2).

Is our “independent” streak causing us to lose our edge in society? Are we so concerned about being “relevant” that we are ineffective? Why can’t we return to the forms that the Church has used for 2000 years while filling them in with music and language that speaks to North American Christians in the 21st century? Why can’t we learn to “think liturgically” vs. thinking the way the mall and Hallmark does?

I challenge everyone who claims to follow Jesus to seek to do it in a way that testifies to the culture transcending message of the Gospel.