Welcome to the Big Show!

The "Big Show" is a term used by minor league baseball players when they are called up to play for the major league team. This post, however, is not about baseball. It is about church. Sunday I was prompted by a link posted on Facebook by a friend to read an article in the New York Times about the increasing pressure for pastors to become entertainers. He also sent me a link to another blog post about a child attending a Vacation Bible School and how the church was offering an iPad to the child who brought the most friends.
Now, before everybody jumps on the "Hater" band wagon, and starts criticizing me for judging unfairly, let me say this. I have been on both sides of the street. I have attended traditional worship, blended worship, contemporary worship and Mega Churches, so I feel I have the background to be able to draw comparison. I was raised in a very traditional Methodist Church. We didn't clap or speak out or hardly laugh unless it was the polite titter at one of the jokes that the minister would open his sermon with that he had gotten, I'm sure, from a book entitled, Jokes to Start Off Your Sermon. We never said the "J" word (Jesus) and we didn't really talk about a personal relationship with God or Jesus. Along about my freshman year in high school I stopped going to Church all together. I started attending again when I was engaged and about to be married, dropped out, and then I went back as a regular attender once I was married. Not only was I a regular attender, but my husband (husband then, ex now, but that's a post for another time) and I became heavily involved with the church. We sang in the choir, my ex taught Youth Sunday School, and he and I were MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship) leaders. We stayed on that course for several years, and then I became more and more dissatisfied with the turn this church was taking, and I was really attending out of obligation rather than wanting to attend. I made the church hop to blended worship. Stayed there for almost 15 years, but left there once my husband and I were separated, too much baggage. I began searching and ended up at a fairly contemporary church. At first, I liked it, but gradually it became more and more about the show for me. The pre-service music was so loud you could not speak to someone without yelling, and it seemed more like a club than a church . I was on the "hop" again. This time I went back to tradition, and that is currently where I am.
My children occasionally attend an ultra contemporary church with their father, and even though they are teenagers, they many times come away from the service with a "how did that have anything to do with God?" attitude.
How far is too far? I have had discussions about this in my Sunday school class, and have actually heard this phrase, "whatever it takes to get them in the door." Really? I'm sure a FREE BEER night would get them "in the door". Should we offer that? What about strippers? Usually attendance from men in the 25-35 age bracket is down, I'm sure that would bring them "in the door". Why have we reduced worship, and that's what church should be, in my opinion, to a business with marketing campaigns and free iPads and incentive programs. If we "hook" people with things and promises of a  flashy show, who are we hooking, and what have we set ourselves up for? Yes, I realize that churches need people to give money so they can operate, and when attendance falls, so does the budget, but if you are padding your attendance with people who come every week for the FREE show, you might as well call yourself a theater and sell tickets. People who come for entertainment are not going to be your huge givers, and when they tire of the show, they will leave.
If Jesus were alive, would he want us hawking him like some smarmy barker at a second rate carnival? " Hurry, hurry, hurry! See the Savior, the King of the Jews. Step right up. Don't be shy! Look closely! See the hole in His side, the nail pierced hands! Hurry, Hurry, Hurry."