Worship Arts

This morning we had some wonderful worship. It was full of special features. We had the contemporary band, One voice, joining with the choir. We had a guest saxophonist. And, we had an amazing dance to go along with with the choir's rendition of "Baba Yetu." As I said, it was a great, inspiring celebration of Pentecost.

While there was much that made the services wonderful this morning, but I want to talk about the dance in particular. What an addition to worship! It only showed once more how much the worship arts, such as dance and drama, can help to bring the Gospel to life in even more creative ways. It is always interesting to see how a dance might be used to interpret a scripture or a song. Once again, God shows how God can move and inspire in numerous ways.

I guess it's a good thing for me that my wife is a dancer!

Chris

Marketing and Message

One of the more talked about church issues lately has been that of marketing. Recently, there was an article on adage.com that chimed in on this debate. It was the article's stance that marketing has been a big part of the problem in the church recently. This is because it feeds our culture's consumerist mentality. Interestingly, the article also stated that marketing also provided the answer, but only if it is done extremely well.

Another site, churchmarketingsucks.com, had a post that I think gets to the heart of the matter: "Simply develop your message, and ask yourself the best way to communicate it without compromising." Here is the a-ha - it's about the message. It's not about the church building, nor is it about what advertising venues are utilized. It all means nothing without the message. And it is about us as Christians embracing the message of the Gospel, living it, and sharing it. I can tell you with certainty that the Christian faith has not grown and been sustained because of it's buildings or it's advertising campaigns.

Don't get me wrong, those things can be helpful. But we have to remember that they are just tools that mean nothing without the message.If we want our churches to grow we need to get back to the heart of the matter. Let's recapture the understanding of the Gospel as life changing, as making a difference. When we embrace, live, and share the Gospel, the rest will fall into place.

We have probably all heard that you can't give what you don't have. Do we who call ourselves Christians have it? What are we going to do next?

Chris

Rethink Church

United Methodist Communications has started a new marketing campaign for The United Methodist Church. The title of this campaign is "Rethink Church." In our staff meeting, we debated if this meant that non-Christians were to rethink what church was or if church-goers were to rethink how they understood and conducted church. In the end, we pretty much decided that it was both/and. Personally, I believe this is a step in the right direction, but its going to take awhile.

Part of this campaign is a changing of emphasis on the United Methodist mantra, "Open hearts, Open minds, Open doors." This has previously meant that we were to be a church and a people who had open hearts, open minds, and open doors. The new campaign calls for a new emphasis on the word "open" being a verb. Thus, we are to be a church and a people that OPEN hearts, OPEN minds, and OPEN doors. For me, I like this emphasis. It reminds us that faith is not to be an idle thing, but lived out. The new emphasis reminds us as churches to not sit around and rest on our laurels. I have always advocated the activeness of our faith. People in my church are used to hearing me say during our services that worship is a verb.

So, does this mean that we let go of the old understanding of being a people and a church with open hearts, open minds, and open doors? As a fellow staff member reminded us: its both/and. That tends to be the case with God, but that's a topic for another time.

Chris