The writer said the church was arrogant and out of touch with the majority of Generation X people and that nothing the church said could connect with her.

Now this is a charge that has often been leveled against the church, and I think it's probably true in some quarters. We don't have to look far to find arrogant priests and ministers ruling their congregations with iron fists.

But I think the reader was saying something quite different. The letter writer, I believe, was talking about systems that continue to exclude some people - women, for example - from the decision-making bodies of many churches.

The Catholic Church, the Southern Baptists, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod - all three say women and practicing homosexuals cannot be priests or ministers. And there is no force on Earth that can make them change their mind on those two issues.

So there is an arrogance there, that they have a grip on the truth and they will never let go. The Presbyterians, the Episcopalians and the more moderate Evangelical Lutheran Church in America also do not ordain practicing homosexuals. But they do ordain women. And they are making some progress in talking about those issues and searching for solutions.

Within the next decade, one or more of those denominations will probably decide to open the ordained ministry to practicing homosexuals.

In the meantime, there are thousands of people working behind the scenes to see that the system is dismantled. And you know who these people are - they will not give up until they are victorious.

Another reader dropped a letter on me saying that he got so full of religion in his youth growing up in small-town America that he figures he's still filled halfway to the brim. But he did say one profound thing, that the church should have started changing its worship style shortly after World War II.

When you think about it, that makes a good deal of sense. Coming home from the war in Europe and Asia were thousands of soldiers, many of whom had seen life in the rawest sense.

What kind of world would they have created if worship had been exciting, high-tech and relevant? Instead, we subjected them to centuries-old music, boring sermons and static liturgies. Amazingly, they continued to attend and they managed to build a pretty good world.

What do we now offer worshipers?

About the same, sometimes worse. But more and more often, churches are beginning to offer better worship than we've ever had.

I know of one Twin Cities area church, for example, where the congregation pulled together and took an old church that had never grown and turned it into one of the metro area's fastest-growing parishes. The first thing members did was change the name of the church, from White Bear Baptist Church to Eagle Brook Church. Then they built a gym where worship also happens.

Some of the older members like to worship in the older, but attractive sanctuary. Now, ordinarily, most churches would have two preachers pontificating, one in the old sanctuary and one in the new gym.

But Eagle Brook Pastor Bob Merritt took the congregation on a paradigm shift and decided he would do the preaching since he has a Ph.D. in public speaking. One Sunday he preaches in the old sanctuary, and the next Sunday in the gym. And the people in the vacant pulpit area see and hear Merritt on closed-circuit television.

They've got a hot band, contemporary music and the preaching is excellent. The congregation is growing like mad.

Where do you suppose all those people are coming from?

Many are unchurched people who are looking for change in their lives. But a good many are leaving traditional churches that are still worshiping as they did in 1945.

The culture we live in is in a frenzy. People are searching for excitement. All week long their lives are controlled, and then comes church - more control. What they really want is to come to church and get tantalized, excited, thrilled and inspired. If only every congregation could do that - this would be a different world.

Clark D. Morphew
July 4, 1998