When we come to a church worship service, are we looking to have fun? I can remember a time about 12 years ago when church had gotten boring and dead to people. They were looking to be refreshed, to have a reason to smile in church, maybe even laugh……We as church leaders thought, if movies, plays and comedy clubs can pack them in, than we could also, IF we could just make it “fun”. So we recreate the Sunday service, combining humorous sermon illustrations (mostly taken from Readers Digest “Laughter Is The Best Medicine” columns), comedy skits (which were worse than post-Chris Farley SNL), and happy-clappy songs about Father Abraham, “scratching the back of the one next to ya”, and feeling overly intelligent when we could all spell, “I am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N”. And strangely enough, I think it worked. Churches were filled to the steeple with happy, laughing, orthographically impressive, back-scratched Christians. Done, we did it. Now all we have to do is keep them laughing for the next 50 years, or they’ll go somewhere else.
Well, I’m noticing them going somewhere else, and it ain’t always First Funny Church of Giggleville.
You see, I think they have enough events to go to in life. Baseball games, football practice, tae kwon do, the neighborhood playhouse and cinema, the local microbrewery, kareoke, all in enough time to get home to watch Survivor, Earl, and The Office. They don’t need one more place to go to be entertained. They need Christ and community with His Church. They need opportunities to sing, pray, and learn the Word. This must be our priority.
Now before you start getting all jumpy and threatening to beat someone bloody, I’m not saying every Sunday has to be a Good Friday service, in silence, with black curtains, music in minor keys, a worship leader that looks like Robert Smith, and a moody, self-deprecating preacher. What I am saying is that people are changing. I don’t believe they are looking for Pastor Jim Carrey, they are looking for someone to be real, reflect Christ, and teach the Word. If that particular teacher is funny, that’s great. I think it’s healthy for people to laugh, at themselves and at others. Seinfeld taught us that. I’m not teaching a course on public speaking, sermon preparation, or church psychology. I’m not saying don’t tell a joke, perform a skit, or crawl through the legs of a fellow pastor if it crosses your mind. I’m am talking about reassessing our intentions and priorities. If your first comment on Sunday morning was “it was fun” and not “it revealed Christ”, you may want to turn in your rubber chicken for a Bible.
you speak sentiments that i have felt for awhile. i want to be filled when i go to church. i want to grow. if church became an event or just a habit i would stop going, because we need our lifeblood to flow and our curiosities to be peaked and then your only response can be growth.
the two guys in the chair look funny, and i mean that hwoever you need to take it.
The thought that what brought people to church was the entertainment, is pathetic. Although having been to many monotonous churches, where the priest has absolutely nothing of value(also nothing biblical) to say, I suppose entertainment might not be so bad. I do not come to church to be amused, I come to learn. At times I am amused by things that are said, but I dont want to think that my pastor sat at home writing a sermon to make me laugh, hopefully more went into it than that. It did, right Ed?
well, fussy1, and others, i write my sermons thinking about the judgement the bible promises teachers of the word- a double judgement it says.
When i complete a sermon i usually as my wife or a close friend one question: “was Christ revealed.”
Ocassionally a funny (or what i think is a funny thot) goes through my head and i say it. Sometimes people laugh. Sometimes i say serious things and people laugh.
I am not in for people’s laugh, or my own measure of my sermon as good or bad. What do those things matter? One makes me a slave to opinion, the other on manic roller coaster of vain approval or vain condemnation.
Was Christ revealed?
….and thank you for being amused at times.
I wish we could have mime sketches to Ray Boltz with dancers in sheets and little kids dressed with lamb outfits. Yeah that would be cool. Maybe even a clown. No, I am afraid of them.
I’d like to see more pastors crawling through legs.
Actually one thing that anyone would notice about Terra leadership is the candid and real life manner by which they speak to people.
following up on waraxe, among the pastors we have all sort of decided that we are just going to be ourselves, which, as scott reflected in his post, is the best way to be. I tend to be a bit eccentric, and a little quirky at times. I also really like dry humor, the kind canadians and brits are famous for. So, when I’m preparing the public side of my role at TN, whether it’s the announcements, or teaching, I try to just be myself. Some sermons lead more to humor than others. And when I tell a joke, it’ll be something I find funny. Because, as I said, among the pastors, we have all decided to just be ourselves. I was watching a video of another pastor recently, and he was making jokes and using canned illustrations from the “Sermon illustration book”, and he was trying so hard to sound cool but it just came off lame and forced like he had intentially picked some version of cool that he would emulate.
Bottom line, as was said above, it’s all about Christ. I’ve been to the most boring churches in the world where Christ was clearly revealed, and I’ve thought “I would go here”. I’ve been to trend setting churches where Christ was revealed, and I’ve thought “I would go here also”. That is the bottom line. That’s the thing that should’nt change. There was a time when humor and silly skits were required regardless of whether it felt natural or not. Thankfully, the american church landscape is graduating from that wierd unnatural little side road.
Be Natural, Be Yourself, Reveal Christ. That’s my summary, I hope that’s what guides us at Terra Nova for the forseeable future.
It is quite an undertaking trying to breath life back into the church. In the book of Acts in chapters 2 and 4 it seems to describe the church as people sharing thier lives together and taking care of eachother every day — a full life commitment. It seems like the normal response of Rom5:5 doesn’t it? — 1 Jn 3:14,16. I think people feel unfulfilled in churches because they are lacking the “life” where on can truly give all he has to serve God and his brothers. Where can people go where they can lay down thier life daily for those they suffers together with, to learn to have true, unbreakable friendships. A “sermon” should bring people together to love and care for one another, shouldn’t it. It seems like that is what the words of the apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit did — It was radical — the most radical — love your friends every day as Messiah loves you.
I think people need a family and close frinds to share their life with, that is the church. Their spiritual need for love needs to be filled. What do you think?
James 1:27
dove, i agree with you.
going to church used to be one of those things i just did in my week, but lately (since attending services at 2 acts29 churches) i actually look forward to showing up.
after worshipping with like-minded Christ-seekers, listening to compelling talks from gifted pastors who inspire me to be more like Christ, i just want it all to continue past the service. i wish every sunday could continue well past the allotted 2 hours mark.
no matter what baggage i enter into worship with, at the end i look around me and everyone i see appears different than when i first entered. i no longer feel compelled to ignore those around me and busy myself with organizing my already organized purse/wallet, i long to connect with them, know them, hear them talk about themselves, hear my own voice speak and be known.
i agree, this is the way it should be; Christ revealed, prying open the doors of our carefully guarded hearts and changing us to become more like Him.
in addition, James 1:22-25
Jms 1:22-25 is right on.
So where are people free to live out the word. Christ should be revealed in His people (Jn 17:21) just as He revealed His Father (17:6)by how he loved(jn 13:35). This was revealed in Act 2 and 4, a visible demonstration of people caring for one another, being a light, and raising the standard of love. This was in obedience to Jesus’s words in Matt 10:37-39;Mk10:21-29;Lk14:25-34;Jn 12:23-28. The apostles commanded the people to do the same as they had done in response to Matt 28:19,20 — they were teaching people to do all they were taught to do. This established a radical life where all the believers were together learning the most valuable thing — how to love one another. This is the life, it is not having a sermon on Sunday having your feelings cahnge and walking out into your life again. What a rip off! That is not what Jesus died for. Where has this church, “community”, “edah”(beehive) in hebrew, gone where people are willing to give up everything of their own pursuits to learn what it is to have the greatest love and lay down your life for your friends every day. Where is Christ being revealed? In unity -the kind of unity of the Father and Son have and in love?
It does exist.