Eavesdropping
One of my best friends is a brilliant entrepreneur. The world of business ownership is foreign to me, but I’ve learned plenty of lessons about life, faith, and worship from his experiences. That was the case recently as John was interviewed for a podcast related to owning and operating a small business, and I eavesdropped on their conversation.
In this particular interview they shared a metaphor that caught my attention. When thinking about the product offered to customers, they asked if the need they were meeting was an “aspirin problem” or a “vitamin problem.” (It seems this might be a popular image among business owners).
Ibuprofen or aspirin is used to treat mild-to-moderate pain, inflammation, or fever. Typically, these are temporary conditions, and the treatment reduces the problem until it eventually subsides. These are not long-term complications; barring major issues, they’ll eventually go away soon enough.
Vitamins, on the other hand, are used to promote overall health and well-being, and boost longer-term deficiencies in the system. A lack of vitamin B12 can reduce your red blood cell count. Regularly bleeding gums might stem from a lack of vitamin C. So boosting vitamins like this stimulate general, long-term physical and mental health.
In the world of business, the metaphor communicates whether the service being rendered solves an underlying problem or provides relief for a temporary one. This was a catalyst that got me thinking. While their use of the aspirin and vitamin metaphor was related to services rendered and customer needs, it might help us think well about healthy worship cultures as well, with a simple shift in perspective.
Flipping the Metaphor
I do want to make it clear, however, that the church is absolutely not a vendor of religious goods and services, doling out spiritual experiences and resources like they are widgets. The congregation is not an audience, and they aren’t the first recipients of any offering in our contexts. The church is a community of people united together in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and our worship is New Covenant renewal in the presence of the Triune God of love. So we don’t need to think about “services rendered” in the same way.
But this reality also means we’re going ebb and flow through seasons of strength and seasons of struggle, where you as a worship planner can take stock of the worshiping life of your church family and identify areas of health and sickness. Those areas of sickness are where a reshuffled version of the metaphor is helpful. Instead of analyzing what the worship service or worship team is “offering” the congregation (*shudders*), we can ask about issues we see in our participation, our passion, our formation, and our mission.
Which Deficiency?
In my context, we have an amazing group of people on our tech team, running sound, screens, and our livestream. In the rough Michigan winter, three of them travel for an extended period of time. Add in an incoming grandchild in another state for one of our other volunteers, and we’ve got a pretty strong scheduling issue with our team.
This is an ibuprofen problem, not a vitamin problem. It’s just a headache. The team is healthy, committed, and joyful. For me as a leader to “treat” this headache, there are a few different “ibuprofen” solutions. I could reduce some of what we offer technically during services. I can recruit one or two more volunteers, even in the short term, to ease the pinch.
But, with the advent of online giving, we have lost the beauty, meaning, and formation of bringing our “firstfruits” before God. Whereas our congregation used to move around the room, bringing their tithes and offerings to bowls that stood in the aisles as an act of worship, our offering time has now been merged with our passing of the peace because no one had something physical to offer God during the offering time.
When I ponder that, I know I’m overseeing a vitamin problem. It’s not just a headache; it’s actually a place of sickness for us as a congregation. Theology, worship, and action don’t line up, and so we also lose the formation and sense of mission that can come with a robust sense of offering God our very best - financially or otherwise. I see the symptoms, but prayerfully and communally need to work toward a “vitamin boost”—new teachings, new practices, new celebrations—to reestablish that form of worshiping the Lord, and be shaped as his disciples.
Your Context
Pause. Take a step back from your worshiping community for a moment. No doubt you already feel the tensions that are present, even if you can’t articulate them. Does your congregation struggle to sing well? Is there cognitive dissonance in the words you sing on Sunday and the lives your congregation lives on Monday? Is prayer “just a transition” in your service, rather than communing with the Holy God? Do the lyrics of your songs skew toward individualism?
What do you notice about the worshiping life of your congregation? What do you celebrate? What do you struggle with? What do you grieve? Identifying the frustrations is one thing, whether through targeted feedback, experience, or anecdotal observation.
The next step, though, is analyzing what type of issue you might have on your hands. If it’s just a headache, some simple aches and pains, search for an “ibuprofen solution” to help ease the short-term burden. But if what you and your leadership team are experiencing is a symptom of greater problems in the system, the vitamins needed will require deeper prayer, honest conversation, and a faithful imagination.