One church service can be designed for the members of the church with a worship style that reflects the tastes of the people in the church and in a format that will be comfortable for all the saints who gather.
Another church service can be a display of worship for unchurched people with every aspect carefully designed to engage or enthrall people who would not normally feel like going to church.
There are many shades between the two extremes, but I don't want to talk about those because it gets too complicated.
I guess I have always been more interested in the second type of gathering. It seems like Jesus was looking to encounter common people rather than religious people and so why not do the same thing? It almost seems like a church service designed for Christians could be a waste of time. . . they're already Christians so why do they even need a church service?
One time a few years back a lady asked me to help take up the offering for church. I think I might have taken this too far when I turned her down and told her I didn't really believe in the mission of that church service. I have never regained credibility with her. :( Maybe because I equated that service with an adult day care. . .
But really, if a person is walking with God and has become a mature Christ follower (whatever that means) why would they need to dress up and come into this this huge room and sit in a pew and yawn through a hymn, sleep through a sermon and drop an obligatory check in the offering plate? Is that really essential to their spirituality? Does God really need that to commune with them? I get totally stoked for things like fellowship, sharing scripture in community and encouraging fellow believers, but do we really need a church service for that?? It seems like that would happen even better in a living room or over lunch or while walking around the woods. Maybe it would be more natural that way.
So a church service that I have been interested in is one completely designed to capture the attention of unbelievers. If there is a sermon it would be speaking directly to those who don't own bibles. If there is praise music it would be a mysterious display of worship for intriguing the unchurched. But more than any of that, it would be a continuation of the display that Jesus started. Justice, healing, restoration and transformation would be on display. . . ok, but this is strange: those are things that are most easily demonstrated outside the walls of a church.
Which raises the question: Why a church service?
Forgive my schizophrenia:
How about a church service preaching the gospel but designed from a common culture? With real wine for communion, with a non Cristian rock band opening the gathering. . .
I am ready to be untied from traditions that serve religious people instead of the God who created them.
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