What’s a church service for? Pt. 2
Written by Aron Strong on May 30, 2008 – 4:49 pm -This post is much later than I anticipated. A huge project landed in my lap this week on the fast track and has derailed my regular schedule. That said, I’d like to thank D Rho, Eric Rata, and Joe for great and insightful comments. What you guys said really resonates with me.
I think this discussion often gets confused between two concepts: what is the church for and what’s a church service for? I find that many young and growing believers get caught up thinking they are one in the same thing. This is not a style discussion, but a purpose discussion. Style has mostly to do with preference.
It’s a circular system. The style of your church will define the style of your service which influence the style of people your church will attract. Service style may revolve around deep exegetical teaching. It could be around passionate worship. It may be relationship and interaction. Each of these is important to a growing believer. The problem falls when people expect a service to be all of those at the same time. When people think the purpose of a service is to accomplish the entire growth process at one time, in one place.
Of course, this isn’t the picture of the life of a growing Christ follower. It’s something that permeates your entire life, schedule, relationships and habits. Our biggest problem is that we really just don’t want to work that hard at following Jesus. Especially now that culture confirms what human nature desires (immediate gratification marketing combined a disposable commodity society) it’s a tough job to lead people to engage at that level. But no one said this would be easy. Especially Jesus.
So, then if the church service can’t and shouldn’t provide a one stop shop for growing believers, what’s it for?
I think it is a big part is a) to get seekers and young believers moving in the right direction and b) be a gathering place for believers (of every stage of their faith journey) to worship, be challenged and experience God together.
More on a) since we can mostly all agree on b). (if you don’t, leave a comment and let’s continue the discussion!) For seekers and young believers, a church service creates God experiences they have a hard time finding elsewhere. It gives them tools they can use. It introduces them and moves them to understand worship. It gives people something to invite their friends to. And according to the Reveal Study, the largest comprehensive spiritual growth and the church study which we recently got to be a part of, confirms this is true. Worship services are only a significant part of spiritual growth to seekers and young believers. After that, it has to happen outside the service.
Because growth, real spiritual growth, has to take place outside of a service. It’s going to happen in a growth group, serving in ministry, reaching out to the poor and desolate through missions. It comes from reading your Bible on your own, through prayer, solitude and tithing. It comes through seeking out spiritual mentors and sharing your faith. It happens as you shape your life to look like Christ.
And equipping people for those things is the job of the Church. The discipleship process is there to provide people tools to grow in those areas. Still, it’s vital people realize the Church can’t grow you spiritually. That’s something that happens when you submit to Christ through disciplining yourself to become like him.
The Church provides the resources. You provide the commitment. God provides the transformation as you begin to look like him.
A final thought. Church services are for everyone: seeker, young, growing and mature believers. I absolutely love working in an area that engages and challenges every believer no matter where they are in their faith. Truth is truth no matter where you are on the journey. 65 minutes can change your life. But it’s the rest of the minutes that take that change and make it a permanent part of your life.
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