Sundays... But For Whom?

I think most churches in our era and American culture, particularly post-80's, struggle with the question "who are Sunday services for?" With the boom of seeker-friendly mega churches, the answer is that Sunday services are for the seeker (with small groups mid-week more for feeding the believer). For many traditional churches, the answer is that Sunday services are for the believer (and consequently have few visitors outside of the faith). My church has worked hard to be somewhat of a both-and, rather than either-or.

It's a difficult balance to maintain. Worship is something we do in response to God's character and movement through humankind history- belief being somewhat of a pre-requisite to acknowledgement and response. But I believe that during our Sunday services, it is possible for believers to gather with this purpose in mind, and to do it in a way that is accessible and understandable for people of varying stages of faith, including no faith at all. Not everything the believer does is completely understood by those who don't share the same faith of course, but it is at least explained and then observed. I do think there are many times in a "non-believers" journey that they do respond in worship before they officially "believe".

My friend Sally Morgenthaller wrote a book a while ago called "Worship Evangelism". In some ways, she has since changed her views on some of what she wrote mostly, I think, because of the way her thoughts were interpreted by various churches. But mostly I think the concept of worshipping well as the best way to share faith is a good one.

I believe strongly that the concept of worship needs to be broadened, however. When I say that worshipping well is one of the best ways to share faith, I don't mean playing good, non-cheesy music and incorporating thought-provoking rituals during a worship service on Sundays. What I mean is that an individual taps into the understanding of loving people well, serving them and engaging with them in honest, learning dialogue- THAT kind of worship. I really believe the best "marketing" tool we have as a church is to be involved in holistic service to the immediate, surrounding community in a loving and non-judgmental way.

I think I am also coming to realize that deep down in my core, I don't believe that a service geared towards spiritual explorers is really the best way to draw in explorers or to engage with them as they ask questions of faith and possibility. This could be a signficant, fundamental difference between me and my lead pastor that may very well determine how long I stay the worship pastor.

In the past, it seemed that, in my role as the worship pastor, it was ok for me to see my role as more geared towards the believer, while constantly contextualizing for the spiritual explorers. I am very comfortable with this. It seems, though, that my lead pastor, who lives and breathes evangelism, wants all of his staff and in particular the worship leaders, to lead from the same place of evangelistic motivation that he does. What that means to me right now is that my filter for what songs I choose, what language I use, what rituals we incorporate and what liturgy or other element we choose to include or exclude should mostly be influenced by what the seeker needs, and not the believer.

I hope that that isn't what I am being asked to do, but it sure seems like that. I have a meeting with my lead pastor on Tuesday, and among one or two others things I believe we need to discuss, I think this definitely needs to be included.

I really WANT to be a part of a church full of people who are serving their friends, neighbors and strangers so well that there is a constant flow of spiritual explorers asking questions and attending our worship services. I would be so sad if that wasn't the case. I'm nervous to have this conversation with my boss because right now I feel like I am going to land on the other side of the line that he is drawing, and that will most certainly determine my fate. The reality that leading at this church may have a finite timeline is becoming much more tangible, and quite frankly, I'm scared of life outside of this role, and I'm saddened by that possibility.

Hard To Avoid Sarcasm When...

So at our production meeting on Friday, we were (finally) planning our Easter services (that are in two weeks). The worship coordinator says, "Oh- do we have to have baptisms on Easter?" I laughed, thinking he was just adding a little sarcastic humor because OF COURSE we are going to have baptisms on Easter. He says, "No, seriously- do we have to have baptisms on Easter?"

Really? Are you kidding me? First, my lead pastor is wigging out because we haven't had as many baptisms as he would like- so where is this "no baptisms on easter" crap coming from?!

I was so surprised I had a hard time even responding. Easter is THE Sunday to get baptized- of all the 52 Sundays in the year, that's the ONE you get baptized on. And not just at my church- but Good Lord- all over the world and throughout history. It's difficult not to respond with copious amounts of sarcasm. I'm supposed to meet with my lead pastor on Tuesday, to continue the conversation we had a few weeks ago. I guess I'll hear from him then. I assume this push is coming from him, and not just the worship coordinator. I just can't figure out what else could be more important to include during the Easter service than baptisms and communion. I mean, if that's ALL we did, we would have a great service. But whatever.

Imag? I-NO!

The last two weeks of meetings have actually been alright. The extra effort seems to be paying off. For the most part, I feel like we've been able to marry the message topic with the four-fold without compromising the four-fold too much. The meetings are somewhat exhausting because we're in the place where I'm having to defend a song for 10 minutes, explaining and re-explaining why it's the right choice. It's not that I'm not open to other suggestions, but I put a lot of thought into what songs I choose for each part of the service and it gets old having to revisit each song each week. I'm hoping that gets less laborious as we go on.

I found out today that the plan is to get an imag camera up and running by April. I'm not thrilled about this development at all. Apparently, the reasoning is that they want the congregation to get used to seeing the teacher on the screen, so that when we start a new site in the future, we can have the option to do video teaching. People will already be used to it.

I don't love the idea for a few reasons. The first reason is that i don't think our room is really big enough to warrant the teacher's mug up on the giant screens- it feels like overkill. Second, though, and probably more important, is that we lose the pieces of art that we were involved in the message. My lead pastor said he may even put the worship leaders up on the screen, which is mortifying to me. I'm thinking probably not at our site because it's easier to see the people on stage, but he didn't mention it for no reason. Besides not wanting to have my own mug up on the giant screens, we would definitely lose the art up on the screens that is such a vital part of our worship services.

This is one of those pieces of the Sunday puzzle that isn't a theological issue- it's not a moral issue- it is somewhat of a philosophical issue- but mostly it's a cultural issue. I vacillate back and forth between really wanting to be 100% on board and thinking surely I'm just overreacting; but then these sorts of details come up and I get that sinking feeling again that I may not be at this job for as long as I had hoped.