I Would Do Church Differently

Attending churches as a guest has left me with an impression of some things I would do different if I were to ever be in charge again. Our worship is designed so totally for those already a part of the church outsiders can miss the whole message. By outsiders I mean, not just the unchurched, but believing church goers who are simply guests in our church.

We sail through our order of worship as mindlessly and as heartlessly as if it were a formal liturgy. We sing the song and say the words and if they ever had meaning to us, they no longer do; and anyone looking in from the outside would have to wonder, “what are they doing?”

In a newly designed format of worship I would continually explain to people what we were going to do, why we were doing it, and then after it was over explain what we did. Everything!

EXAMPLES:
“We are going to begin our Worship this morning by singing this amazing hymn about grace. It is a song about God’s amazing grace that allows us to experience Him without deserving to experience Him at all.”

“In our opening prayer we are going to ask the Lord to bless our church service this morning. We are calling on the Lord to make Himself present with us as we spend this hour with one another in His presence.”

“Prayer is when we address our thoughts and our requests to God believing He hears us and responds to us.”

I would include in each service a statement of belief. Either one of the traditional confessions of faith or I would write one for our particular church.

“I believe in One God, present in three persons, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

It would be short, and maybe change the emphasis from week to week, or month to month and I would take a minute or two to explain what it is we are confessing as our faith.

I would insist that each song, hymn, carol, chorus, etc., be introduced with an explanation of why we were choosing to sing this particular song, or in the case of a string of music which is more the norm in today’s worship, what are we intending to accomplish, say, confess, pray, etc., by using these particular choices.

I would attempt to use the purpose statement of the church in each service to remind our members and to inform our guests of the purpose for which this church exists.
I would explain scripture readings before they happened.

“This passage of scripture was given to the prophet Isaiah by the Holy Spirit some 700 years before the birth of Christ. Isaiah, whose name means “the Lord is Salvation” was a prophet in Jerusalem after the time of David and Solomon whose main purpose was to remind his readers of the special relationship they had with God as members of his covenant community. ”

Now this is only a seedling of an idea. I see some pitfalls in it. You would have to be brief, yet you need to be sure your explanations really explain and not just further confuse things. You would have to change what you said, or before long it too would become ritualistic and ignored.

God has given us the privilege of meeting with Him and his earthly family on regular occasion. I believe we ought to work harder to give it meaning.