How should we be 'doing' church?

It surprises me that people still hassle me sometimes about when I am going to start blogging again. So - flattery and persistence really do work folks - well done!

I was reading this post on the Christianity Today leadership blog about the whole question of whether church should be 'seeker-sensitive' or not. For those of you not familiar with the jargon, the question is really whether church services (and usually it only refers to services) should be run in a way that is as non-weird and normal to people who never normally come to church. For example, you probably wouldn't have prayers in Latin with loads of incense, nor would you conga around the church speaking in tongues whilst the preacher removes snakes from a basket and is miraculously unhurt (I have only seen some of those things live).

'Seeker-sensitive' services tend to be short (max. an hour), have only a very little singing (possibly disguised as 'songs for the children') and may well involve sketches. There may be a bible reading and a short talk, which will probably be directed to a very relevant aspect of life, e.g. "the importance of friendship" or "happy families" or something.

I guess my gut reaction has always been that that just isn't the best way to attract people to church. If it's not a service that I would really enjoy and meet God in in a powerful and moving way, why on earth would I expect my friends who aren't Christians to do so?! I suppose also I don't really believe that tinkering with Sunday services is the way you get people into church, but rather that happens when Christians are out there living real life in a Christian way and talking naturally and spontaneously about their faith. So I suppose I believe getting Christians out of church is more important than getting people who aren't yet Christians into church! So on a Sunday morning it doesn't worry me too much if there's snake handling in Latin.

In any case, it's a really interesting article so do take a look if you have time. And please post a comment and tell me what you think! I guess I am particularly interested to hear from readers who don't consider themselves Christians, but would love to hear from you all.

Comments

[Edd]

Well, I don't think it's a good idea from anyone's point of view to have some Church-lite for the newbies. Things like readings, well, if it's a bit tough for the newcomer to get to grips with I'd hope the minister or whoever would let anyone new know beforehand that they're welcome to corner them and ask questions afterwards.

Songs on the otherhand... it does make one feel even more out of place when you don't know the songs that well and you don't know the people around you that well either. If they're not too critical a part of the service then maybe they could be toned down for the 'beginners'.

Anyway, I don't see this as a great way of getting people into church. It'd be a way of encouraging them to come again next week, so it'd be rather complementary to your approach of engaging people outside church.

Oh and great to have new posts! I was just thinking this morning that it'd been a bit quiet here :-D

[Mark]

I haven't read the article, but I wonder if people outside the church respond better to more traditional services. That way the service fit better into their pre-ordained brain-slot labelled 'Stuff That Happens In Churches' and therefore they are better prepared for it then something a bit more 'happy-clappy'. Unfotuneately, the 'Stuff That Happens In Churches slot is often synonemous(spl?) with the 'Totally Irrelevant To My Life' slot.

[Jonathan Mobey]

"it doesn't worry me too much if there's snake handling in Latin"
Priceless!