Vegas Trivia: What is the most popular game in the casino getting $7 out of every $10 gambling dollars and has the second worst odds only to the game Keno?   Believe it or not, there may be a correlation between gambling games and churches.

There are a lot of reasons churches are declining in western societies.  I do not pretend to be a church expert.  For scholarly advice on this topic, separate from my own experiential conclusions, I would recommend some of the amazing philosophical/theological/social commentaries of Charles Taylor and James K. A. Smith.  

Anecdotally, every denomination seems to be twisting and flipping the same Rubik’s Cube of church attendance, giving, and new member growth.  Unfortunately, the only online hack for solving this enigma of faith formation in this country are the rapidly growing, community lacking, superficial mega ministries that perfected the use of MOOCs in creating satellite locations while at the same time changing the landscape of how church is being done now and into the future.  My use of “MOOCs” is abbreviated “Massive Open Online Church” not to be confused with Massive Open Online Classes. (I hope I am not tipping my hand that I am not a big fan of the MOOCs approach of church.)

But back to Vegas, why is it that slot machines/video gambling are no longer games of choice just for the elderly?  According to Gary Rivlin’s New York Times article entitled, “The tug of the newfangled slot machine,” for 21-35-year-olds, 69 percent play slot machines and 18 percent play table games.  An estimated $1 billion is pumped into slot machines every day! (Rivlin, 2004)  In the same year, there were 850,000 video gambling machines twice the number of ATMs in this country. (Craig, 2015)

One MIT professor outlined the following neuro-psychological attractions to the Slots:

• ·      The illusion of control: pressing buttons to produce the outcomes (I get to choose my church experience on my digital terms)
• ·      Appearing to operate on a variable payout: fooling the player into thinking that the more they play, the more likely they are to win. (A health and wealth theology often times is associated with the larger mega socially-mobile churches)
• ·      Increased arousal: bells and whistles matter (Big worship, Big lights, Big Drama, Big Pyro, Big Show, Church CGI)
• ·      Immediate gratification: perhaps the most important.  There is no waiting for another person, no interruptions. (Collins, 2014) (It's my own personal journey not connected to a community per se.  This medium fulfills the modern characteristic of individuality)

It has become a common experience for a mega pastor to stare in the direction of multiple cameras providing the obligatory online greeting to groups of people located in cohorts all over the world.  The real savvy ones create superficially choreographed dialogue with the screen so as to portray relational connectivity.  In the end, it’s kinda like me at a Dallas Cowboys game sitting in real primo seats on the 50-yard line.  I end up staring up at the 80-yard HD digital screen and not the live action.  Embarrassingly, I could do that from my couch from my home without the hour-long parking lot exit fiasco from Jerry’s World.

Despite having the live action right in front of me, my fixation is on the HD big screen.  Hard to explain, and even harder to understand, but there is something about the digitalization of reality that seems to attract us Gen Xers and Millennials.  

It is no real surprise that the fastest growing churches today are the ones that are able to leverage technology and the SLOT machine relationships with their parishioners over the boring Blackjack experience where “holding” is the strategy for winning.  After all, this generation is unable to hold their attention, their bladder’s, their comments, and their energy to be active in the kingdom of God.  Some lessons can be learned from what NOT to do when it comes to re-framing how new wine will be contained in new wineskins (sorry to mix my metaphors in mid flow). Jesus is doing a new thing.  Lesson learned: Putting new wine in old wineskins will ruin both the container and the beverage (Mark 2:22).

So why is it churches continue to create a Blackjack sit and lecture style approach to faith formation?  The dealer is the preacher delivering the cards that keep the game going while concomitantly (simultaneously) holding the deck.   Meanwhile the audience is left to be a passive recipient hoping that at the end of the game the experience leaves them with a sense of fulfillment or a feeling of a spiritual win. More often than not, they have been sitting on a face card and an 8 holding and hoping that their church experience will translate into some kind of take home spiritual currency they can cash-in that will make Monday seem less frustrating, less depressing, less drama at home, and more significant and meaningful, provide more relational capital with their loved ones and co-workers that help them do life.   

It is true that with the ubiquitous sermons, lessons, and YouTube’s that church is no longer the primary place to receive biblical and spiritual knowledge.  Instead, it is the place to meet people.  Never before could people augment their need and intrigue for good biblical information and story telling through other sources other than their local church and preacher.   With this in mind, church is less about acquiring knowledge and more about creating a space for lives to intersect.  If this statement is accurate, than churches need to overhaul the way they plan and design their three-hour church experiences (assuming your church still has a traditional Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and midweek service). 

It could be we are playing Blackjack with individuals that are more interested in hedging their bets on more risky endeavors for Jesus. 

Disclaimer: I have never been inside a casino nor have I ever been to Vegas.  lol  This is just an analogy.