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Journalism about Worship in Community: A Collection
Collected and introduced by Nathan Bierma
May 2004
Introduction
Religion news has been less confined to religion sections and more common on the front pages in the past few years, thanks to the scandal surrounding abusive Catholic clergy and the furor surrounding Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Far less prevalent during this turbulent period (and scarce even in relatively quieter times in religion news) are stories about congregations' collective habits of worship—what we may call congregational profiles.
The failure of the media to explore and convey the meaning of worship may merely be taken as a symptom of religion journalism that is typically more ignorant and less illuminating than coverage of politics, business, and so forth. But the media's failure to portray worship as fundamentally corporate (a failure, it must be noted, that is shared by some church planners who design worship to be an individual experience) is notable when considering its coverage of the common characteristics, norms, values and practices of other kinds of groups and organizations. A political reporter will discuss the bureaucratic culture of the White House or a federal agency; a feature reporter will describe the character of a close-knit small town; a business reporter will talk about how the culture of a corporation affects its stock's performance; a sports reporter will assert the importance of a team's “chemistry,” including the atmosphere in the locker room.
Churches, in contrast, are seldom considered in such corporate and cohesive terms. Instead, coverage of congregations tends to follow templates such as these:
• A scandal or controversy tearing a congregation apart.
• A charismatic leader whose personality draws an audience.
• Real estate journalism: How a church is expanding, constructing a new building, rebuilding after a fire, or wrestling with the implications of its building's historic landmark status (all of which are invariably described as acts of faith).
• A Christmas, Easter, or special prayer service that is reported in benedictory terms and quotes generic uplifting statements as an assurance to readers that war and conflict in the world has not overwhelmed the human spirit.
• Unusual ministries and events, such as a Super Bowl party that substitutes for an evening service, a play or music concert that is performed with a non-church-going audience in mind, and other entertainment events or meals intended to draw non-members into a church building.
In other words, according to the way it is covered in the media, the church is a place of power struggles among individuals, an organization with a CEO, an owner of a building, a place to feel good after reading the rest of the paper's tales of violence and tragedy, or a host of civic entertainment events. But it is not a body of believers.
What follow here are a few examples of, and many more exceptions to, these reporting clichés. Many are taken from major newspapers, which have the resources to devote to feature-oriented religion stories that go beyond the bounds of beat reporting. Selected articles are sorted by publication, with comments about its approach to religion and brief summary of the strengths and weaknesses of selected stories.
Many of the stories demonstrate reporting approaches, angles and techniques that are effective and useful, others demonstrate ones that are not (but may be notable for their recurrence). Crucial questions about worship practices left unasked or unanswered are noted in the summaries, but common omissions are worth listing here:
• What rituals or other liturgical elements compose a service? Which typify the liturgy of a religion or affiliated denomination as a whole? Which are distinctive to this congregation, and what are their roots? What are the theological or historical referents?
• Does the pastor or congregation articulate a theology of worship?
• How does a service seek to balance worship that is personal and worship that is communal?
• How does the congregation visibly respond to various liturgical elements?
• How is lay leadership embraced, or shunned?
• What do the physical, ethnic, and economic characteristics of the immediate community mean to the church, and vice versa?
• What do the members of this congregation mean to each other?
This collection is intended to enhance the discernment of readers and writers of congregational profiles, and to convey the importance of stories that are original, insightful, informative, instructive, descriptive, and inspiring.