Found this EmergingBlurb from EmergingChurch.info Monthly Pick of the Blogs. ‘Garth’ writes,
I have been thinking that perhaps we went wrong when church was reduced to a service…event based Christianity.
How can a Christian event attract, appeal and speak the language of several generations at once, not to mention the sub-cultures that may prevail within each? Why do we think that we can sub-contract relational essentials to ‘programs’? Perhaps real church has nothing to do with 10 am Sunday morning, perhaps that’s merely a Christian event tailored more specifically to certain groups of people. Perhaps Sunday morning is just a celebration, maybe its a conference that Christians attend …for good reason.
Perhaps a multi-generational reality can occur relationally within christian communities and has little to do with song #455, an announcement and 45 mins of mediocre teaching. I think we have to move away from that mindset of ‘fellowship’ which doesn’t seem to infer any ongoing connection but an opportunistic meeting and sharing. And that’s exactly what event based Christianity delivers.
How to DO CHURCH: One IDEA FATHER GOD brought to my mind was letting the church service, Sunday morning, be set aside specifically for proclaiming the gospel, which is what the word preaching means and divide everyone else, the saints, into small groups. Surely wizened saints could teach and equip other saints, including children. (Multi-leveled, Inclusive, ) Some suggested small group teaching subjects might be the elementary truths found in Heb. 6, Parables, gifts of the spirit, fruit of the spirit, How to heal the sick and cast out demons, or Old Testament symbolism – take people through the Tabernacle, teach SOAKING. Let the children teach too, let them use creative illustrations-plays, songs or games of their own choosing or of their own imagination, all within the context of a small group, no larger than 12. This could all happen on Sunday morning as usual but a bit ‘out of the box.’ wouldn’t you agree!