Deep Thought: Instead of a trap door, what about a trap window? The guy looks out it, and if he leans too far, he falls out. Wait. I guess that’s like a regular window.

A lot of good ideas, like trap windows, just never pan out, do they? The good idea that we have been talking about is gearing Sunday morning services to unchurched people. Let’s look at 2 more convictions.

10. A service that is geared toward the unchurched is meant to supplement your responsibility of sharing your Christ relationship with others, not replace it.

People generally find it easier to make a decision to follow Christ when they are among a group of people that support that decision. Worship services geared to the unchurched provide the atmosphere to enhance and confirm the personal stories of the members who attend there. When someone who is unchurched attends a service that is designed to reach the unchurched and comes with a friend who invited them and sees the crowd and thinks, “Hey, there are a lot of other people who believe this. There must be something to it.”

There is incredible persuasive power in the witness of a crowd of believers worshiping together. For this reason, the larger our service grows, the greater a tool it becomes.

11. There is no standard way to design a service that attracts the unchurched.

This is because people who don’t attend church are not all the same. Some want a service that makes them feel like they are a part of it; others want to sit passively and watch it. Some like quiet, meditative services; others like high energy services. The style that works best in Destin might not work in DeFuniak Springs and vice versa. It takes all kinds of services to reach all kinds of people.

There are only 3 non-negotiable elements of one of our services that are…. not negotiable:

1. Treat unchurched people with love and respect.
2. Relate the service to their needs.
3. Share the message in a practical, understandable manner.

All other elements are secondary issues that we can’t get hung up on. Our services in the Rave, McGuire’s, PJ’s, and Graffiti, though similar in those 3 elements, are very different when it comes to the style, based mainly on the people we are targeting.

We do not believe that because we dress casually, have dramas, and play cover songs that these things will automatically cause unchurched people to flock to Shoreline. If all people were looking for was a quality production, they could just stay home and watch TV where millions are spent on a half-hour program.

What really attracts a large number of unchurched to church is changed lives - a lot of changed lives. People want to go where lives are being changed, where hurts are being healed, and hope is being restored.

Tomorrow I will close out this series of posts and I have been saving the best one for last. I must warn you, though, it might hurt… but not as bad as falling out of a trap window.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Pastor Eric. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.