Don't fear the youth guy

New Horizons Community Church
Voorhees, NJ
November 18, 2007

In my prior post in the Visiting Churches series, I told the tale of visiting Discovery Church on November 11, 2007 by accident. I had originally planned to visit New Horizons, but it didn’t work out. Here’s why.

I had been visiting churches for seven months at that point, and had not yet been to a Southern Baptist church. Since Southern Baptists are the largest Protestant denomination in the country, this seemed like quite an oversight. I was determined to remedy the situation.

However, only one SBC church was listed in the yellow pages, New Horizons. Apparently the Southern Baptists are not all that popular in New Jersey.

New Horizons had an impressive website, with the slogan “A purpose-driven church changing lives on purpose.”

Aha – a purpose-driven church! I was aware of the huge popularity of Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose-Driven Church, and of the tremendous success of his megachurch, Saddleback. (Non-churchgoers might even be aware of it, since it was the site of the August 2008 Presidential debate between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain.)

Lots of churches and church leaders have participated in seminars to learn how to use the materials and methods espoused by the purpose-driven movement. Lots of others are quite critical of Warren’s theology and methods. Although most people think of him as very conservative, he has taken quite a bit of criticism from the other side, for being too liberal. He was the only evangelical leader to sign the Global Warming Pact, and he has done lots of work with AIDS in Africa. (On the other hand, he has also taken a lot of criticism for not opposing homophobia in Africa, too. Not sure where he is on this issue right now.)

I looked up some information about Baptists. They were early immigrants to northern America, usually fleeing religious persecution in Europe. Unfortunately, they ran into quite a bit of religious persecution when they got to the colonies. In spite of that, Baptist congregations grew and spread rapidly, especially in the south. By the mid-1800s there were three main groups of Baptists in the US: the Triennial Convention, the Home Mission Society, and Southern Baptists.

All three groups had a big problem with slavery. Southern Baptists believed that slavery was Biblical, and they affirmed the rights of ministers to own slaves. Baptists in the north were opposed to slavery, and by 1845 differences were so pronounced that the Southern Baptists withdrew from all national organizations, officially forming the Southern Baptist Convention, mainly to defend the principle of slavery. Not, to put it mildly, an auspicious beginning.

This pro-slavery start had very long-lasting consequences for the denomination. As late as 1968 only 11% of Southern Baptist churches would allow African-Americans to join their churches. It was not until 1995 that the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution renouncing its racist roots and apologizing for its past defense of slavery.

It would seem to most people that this apology took way too long, but on the other hand, they did it. I’m sure it wasn’t an easy thing to do. Plenty of other institutions with racism in their past have not formally apologized to this day.

The New Horizons website informed me that this church began in the mid-1960s, first meeting in the Moorestown Holiday Inn. By 1970 they were able to begin building at their current site. The original name was Emmanuel Baptist Church, but they changed the name in 1999 “to better impact [the] community and reach out to unchurched people.” (Many churches were trying to downplay denominational names during those years, believing that words like Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian discouraged people from visiting – which may be true or not.)

The pastor, J. David Hoke, was chaplain for the Philadelphia Eagles for twelve seasons. According to the website, he was working on a PhD in Theology in 2007, is certified as a Consultant in Church Conflict Resolution, and has two children and six beautiful grandchildren.
So all right - I was prepared to attend a big Southern Baptist, purpose-driven church service, possibly filled with Eagles fans!

I am so psyched to be finally visiting a big, Southern Baptist, purpose-driven church that I even decided to get there an hour before the service, and sit in on one of their morning Bible study sessions. I figured at a church like that I could slip in amongst the crowd unnoticed.

The place is easy to find, just past a lovely area of woods and farmland that has been set aside to be protected from development. I am surprised to see that the building is not very big, though – it’s a tan brick structure with a steeple, and definitely on the small side. When I pull into the parking lot a few minutes before the start of Bible study, I find only two other cars, plus a red 15-passenger van. Hmmm. I check my notes again. It does say Bible study at 9:30 am.

Well, I have sat alone in the pews before. No problem. I march right into the building.

No one is here. A sign points upstairs to the sanctuary. I walk up and peek in, but it’s empty. I walk back down, and venture a few steps into a darkened hallway, but this is obviously a preschool of some sort, and also empty.

Wait – I hear a voice. It seems to be coming from the basement. I tiptoe downstairs and stand outside a closed door. A man reads a verse from Psalms. Then another man says something. This happens again.

Hmmmm.

I decide that my boldness about being the only person in the pews does not extend to a willingness to knock on the door and ask if I might discuss Psalms with two strangers. I tiptoe back up the stairs and out to the parking lot.

Okay, now what? I could wait an hour for church to start. Or . . . I remember seeing signs for Discovery Church as I drove here. I decide to check that out instead, and will attend New Horizons next week.

So that is why I am attending New Horizons one week later, in time for the 10:30 service. This time there are a few people in the sanctuary, but not many. When I enter, several people introduce themselves and shake my hand. In fact, I think about half the congregation shakes my hand before the service begins. This is because there are only about 20-25 people here. Still - they are very friendly. Dress is quite casual, and some people have brought cups of coffee into the pews. (This reminds me of people bringing their bagels and coffee to their chairs at Discovery Church last week. Apparently eating and drinking during the service is the new, cutting edge way of having church.)

A man is sitting on a stool up front. He begins the service by announcing that we are going to sing "I'll Fly Away." It's been quite a while since I've sung that one, but I find that I remember all the words, not really needing the hymnal. Very catchy hymn. Although there is a small electric organ, there is no accompaniment - I'm guessing that they lack an organist. Even without any instruments, though, the singing is strong and enthusiastic - some of these people are pretty good singers!

The man in front then tells us that he is continuing to substitute for Pastor Hoke, who seems to have been away for a while. He tells us that he is actually the "youth guy."  He asks us not to panic because the "youth guy" is preaching, and warns us that "youth guys" are not like regular preachers. For one thing, he tells us several times, they are "addicted" to working with youth. (This seems an incredibly unfortunate choice of words.)

Next we read "A Contemporary Affirmation of Faith," which I've never seen before. It's longer than the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, with which it is printed in the back of the hymnal. It does not seem to me like an improvement on the older creeds. Wordier and less lovely. (It's hard to top "begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God.")

Then we sing "Open the Eyes of my Heart, Lord," a popular praise song. It's not printed in the hymnal, but most people seem to know it. The next song is "Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God," another popular praise song from the seventies. "Seek Ye First" has a lovely descant for female voices, but in this tiny group no one is brave enough to attempt the descant, and I don't blame them.

There is an offering, but it goes by so quickly that I don't manage to get the money out of my wallet in time. Really - it was over in about one minute or less. They may have intentionally gone past me quickly, though. Earlier I had noticed this in the bulletin: "Giving to God: If you are a guest today, please feel free not to give. Our offering is for the members and regular attenders of New Horizons. We want to be a blessing, and give to you." This is very nice.

The sermon is titled "The Battle of Fear," and the text is I John 4:7-21, (perfect love casts out fear). The youth guy begins with a fairly long story about how he got into youth ministry. He is a middle school teacher, and says that at first he didn't want to work with kids in church, since he saw enough of them during the week. He wanted to teach adults. But then God changed his heart. I'm not quite following the chronology of the story, but at one point he was involved in youth ministry in a Methodist church, and the pastor or someone in the congregation did something that either hurt his feelings or was felt to be insensitive (this is like listening to someone tell you about a long, rambling dream, very hard to sort out exactly what's going on), and he left the Methodist church for the Baptist church. I'm kind of shocked, actually, that he's criticizing another denomination by name, even though he might really be criticizing only one particular congregation or pastor. As I mentioned in the post on my visit to the Unitarian church, this just isn't done in the churches I am accustomed to attending.

However, he's not a professional preacher, but a volunteer. Criticizing other churches is just one sign that he is an amateur. The disjointed style of the sermon is another. He makes several points - love for others is a result of our experience of God's love for us; love is like an umbrella, and the five prongs of the umbrella skeleton are G-R-A-C-E; both love and hate will drive out fear, but apathy will encourage fear; apathy is the opposite of love. Some of the points are interesting, but the thing doesn't really hang together well. Plus it's long (35 minutes), another sign of an inexperienced preacher.

He closes with prayer, and does it with another trick of the non-professional. In the prayer, he continues his sermon, lecturing God about the properties of love.

Overall, though, I get the sense that he's a well-meaning guy - churches that rely on volunteers could do worse.

In a brief announcement before the final hymn, I learn that Pastor Hoke is on sabbatical until the end of the year, because he needs to finish his dissertation before December 31. I feel a pang of sympathy for him - anyone up against a dissertation deadline could use a few prayers.

After the service, there are refreshments downstairs. One of the members strikes up a conversation with me. She seems disappointed to learn that I am Presbyterian (somehow this fact never makes anyone happy), but then remembers that there is a family of former Presbyterians in the congregation. They are not here today because they are on a cruise in Cancun. (Well, la-dee-da for the Presbyterians!) She tells me that a congregation of Filipino-Americans also uses the building, as well as a Presbyterian Korean congregation.

Epilogue
There is no way for the church to contact me, as they don't have my name or number. There was a note in the bulletin asking guests to fill out an enclosed form and place it in the offering plate, but I couldn't find the form (and couldn't get anything into the offering plate).

I look through the bulletin again after I'm back home. The church has an ambitious Vision Statement - "to be a church for the 21st century which impacts our community for Christ by reaching out to the humdred of thousands of unchurched residents of South Jersey through relevant, high-quality, and contemporary ministries."

It doesn't seem as though this worked very well. When I check back in 2011, the church's website is gone. I called the phone number I had for them, and the woman who answered explained that they had dissolved New Horizons and were in the process of reopening under a new name. 

Pastor Hoke has a website, though, and he is working on a book about "the forced termination of pastors in which the pastor was wronged by either an individual, a group within the church, and/or even a denominational entity that might have been called  in to help mediate the situation."

So it's not just the "youth guy" who had a bad experience in church. Pastor Hoke claims that 1400-1800 pastors are forced out of their ministries each month, which sounds a bit inflated to me, but there are lots of little, cantankerous churches in this country, so it might be true. It's my belief that this situation is especially common in Baptist churches, where the local congregation has a great deal of power and the pastor relatively little. But that may be a Presbyterian prejudice.

At any rate, New Horizons seems to me to exemplify a situation that is very, very common. You drive by a church building, and it looks as though things are going well. There might be a flourishing preschool, and a nice piece of property, and usually a sign welcoming one and all to join this happy family. But many of these places are are not doing well at all. Not at all.