Our direction is clear. Those of us who are followers of Jesus have been told to go and make followers of all people in the world. I think a good time to start is now, but how do we do this? I think that most people learn about Jesus in a church setting. The number one way that new folks come into a church is to be invited by a current member. Many of us struggle with inviting people to church. I will write in more detail about why it might be hard to invite folks to First Congo, but first, I want to explore another way to get folks into church.
We could consider adding an alternative worship service. We offer a traditional worship service on Sundays at 10am. We welcome everyone to join us, as long as they come at that one time and one place to do that one thing. Diana Bulter Bass, author of Christianity for the Rest of Us, talks about interviewing the VP of Marketing for Starbucks. The VP told her that people at Starbucks have over 70,000 choices of how to order their drink. This is only 30 years after they had maybe eight choices - Regular, Decaf, with or without cream or sugar. Yet, in a day when folks have 70,000 choices of how to get their coffee, most churches offer one worship service. Is is any wonder that our churches are shrinking? We are not changing with our culture. (Possibly more important, we have not adopted a culture of change. Again, that is another post).
The message of Jesus has withstood changes in culture for over 2000 years, and a proposal for an alternative worship is not a proposal to change the message. It is a proposal to change the medium, to change how the message is presented. Many folks do not relate to the traditional worship format. Many of these folks are younger than our median age. Some of these folks are actually members of First Congo. Whether members or not, there is a very large demographic that we are not even attempting to reach. These folks want a spiritual home. People are searching for spiritual fulfillment as never before. You have heard of New Agers, Wiccans, Druids, Neo Pagans,...the list goes on and on and on. These alternate spiritual paths would not proliferate in a world that doesn't care about spritual fulfillment. People are searching. Let's help them find God by getting them in the doors of First Congo.
Starting an alternative worship from the ground up will be a ton of work. It will cost time and money. And there will be resistance. I have heard some resistance already, during informal talks with members. One point of resistance is that many of our members seem fairly happy or content with our worship. I couldn't agree more. However, we are not trying to reach those who come to our current worship service. We are trying to reach those who don't. That is the whole point. Another point that has been made to me is that some folks who currently attend the traditional worship might start attending the alternative, bringing attendance at the 10am service down, which some people won't like.
From where I sit, not quite four years into my membership of First Congo, it appears to me that we are an inwardly focused church, at least in regard to spiritual matters. We don't do a lot to get new folks in the doors and into relationship with God. This action, if undertaken, would be an enormous step toward becoming outwardly focused, and toward fulfilling our mission to make followers of all people.
1 comment:
Interesting and thoughtful comments on a second, alternative service. You raise the question: should it develop "bottom up" (i.e. by lay leaders) or "top down" (i.e. by the pastors)? I am supportive of this effort.
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