san diego | In a darkened room at the San Diego Convention Center last week, nearly 1,000 people clapped, sang and danced to evening prayers, with the words projected on two large screens against a backdrop of mountain vistas and rolling streams.
Featuring a five-piece band, a small vocal ensemble and a charismatic, storytelling leader, the weekday evening service could have been held at any of the growing number of mega-churches in America. But the service was in Hebrew, the prayers were lifted from the new Mishkan T’filah siddur and the participants were delegates to the Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial convention Dec. 12 to 16.
Ideas borrowed from evangelical mega-churches were in abundance at the five-day biennial, a trend championed by Ron Wolfson, co-founder of Synagogue 3000, a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to synagogue revitalization.
For more than a decade Wolfson has been studying the success of Saddleback Church in Orange County, and has developed a bond with its pastor, Rick Warren.
This trend is not without precedent. In the 19th century, the architects of Reform Judaism, seeking a more enlightened, rational and modern style of worship, borrowed heavily from their Protestant neighbors. They held weekly services on Sunday, cloaked rabbis in long black robes and worshiped in a high-cathedral style.
While the movement today is increasingly embracing Jewish traditions it once shunned, Reform leaders insist they must remain open to innovation. And again they are finding inspiration in Christian churches, the most successful of which hold boisterous music-driven services, expertly utilize new technologies and offer a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
“If the mega-churches can do it, maybe it’ll work for us,” said one member of Temple Holy Blossom, a large Reform congregation in Toronto. “I’m open to anything. As long as Jews are praying, I’m happy.”
With an estimated 1.5 million members spread over nearly 900 congregations, several of which boast membership rolls running into the thousands, Reform Judaism doesn’t quite reach Saddleback proportions, but it doesn’t lack for adherents either.
Less trumpeted, however, is the movement’s struggle to retain its members. Congregations frequently report a precipitous decline in membership after a child’s bar mitzvah, when both the child and the family often drop out of synagogue life.
“The most pressing challenge for congregations is attracting and retaining members,” Peter Weidhorn, the incoming chairman of the URJ’s board of trustees, said at the biennial.
Weidhorn cited a recent study showing that the movement’s congregations are not as welcoming as many Reform Jews believe them to be. Participants throughout the biennial were encouraged repeatedly to be more welcoming of newcomers to their communities in a manner that has become a hallmark of the mega-churches.
At Saddleback, first-timers are directed to park their cars in a designated area, where they are greeted by ushers and escorted to their seats. Several Reform congregational leaders said they have already replaced synagogue ushers with “greeters” who perform a similar function.
“They understand how to welcome people, engage people, induct people into the life of the community,” Wolfson said of the mega-churches. “Our people don’t have a sense of mission.”
At an evening plenary session Dec. 13, Warren, the best-selling author of “The Purpose-Driven Life” and perhaps the best-known mega-church pastor in the country, discussed how he grew Saddleback so large that he expects 42,000 worshipers to attend his 14 Christmas services next week.
“One of the keys to building your congregations is just to be nice to people,” Warren told the mesmerized audience. “Smile. People have a longing for belonging.”
JTA correspondent Sue Fishkoff contributed to this report.