Churches today spread the message of Christ very differently. Some focus on worship to carry their services, others use video to illustrate the sermon topics and issues relevant to today’s church. Some churches rely on the traditions of the church to guide their service, while others strive to think out of the box with new and sometimes edgy material and methods for reaching their communities. I’m not about to claim there is one right way to design a church service, after all if that were the case we would all have figured it out by now. God made us each unique for a reason, so it only makes sense that the methods of churches vary as much as our individual personalities.

My dear friend Chris from Sound Thoughts discussed a great issue on this topic in his most recent blog Real. Relevant. Relational. As church workers involved in designing weekend services, we need to remember why we choose to develop the type of environments we do at our churches.

I can’t think of many believers who would argue that our main job as Christians is to reach those who do not know the love of the Lord. As Chris explains believers share common threads with non-believers, so it is our job to show this during our services as we try to share God’s love with those who need it most.

“We believe that church is intended for EVERYONE, not just for “church people.”  It’s important to understand that, if we are truly honest with ourselves as believers, we share a lot of the same needs and desires as those who don’t know Christ.  What we as a church want to do in the context of the weekend service is to clearly present those honest needs (that we all share) through music, video, drama, and a live host, and then, through the speaker’s message, express how we believe that Christ is the answer to that need.  It can be done in a way that is authentic, relevant, and powerful.”

Of course the challenge here is to match the methods we feel are relevant with the needs of the communities we serve. This is something that will, as Chris’ church has discovered, constantly evolve and continue to challenge all involved in the planning process. But as we decide on how to portray certain messages to our churches and the type of environment we want to develop to welcome those who don’t know Christ with open arms, we need to remember to explain to our church members why we do what we do.

As Chris and I discussed this last evening over Google chat, this really hit home with me. As many of you know, Sweet-D and I are personally involved in service planning at our church, which is transitioning to become a more effective, more relevant ministry to reach those in our community who don’t know Christ’s love. The methods we’re using to help the church become this type of ministry are very new for this area, this church. As we all know, new can also be very scary for a lot of people.

One thing we haven’t done a great job at, in my opinion, is explaining to the church as a whole why we are doing what we’re doing. The church has been dying, as far as attendance and membership, for some time, so that’s the obvious reason most of us have focused on. But I don’t think “we’re trying to save the church” is really enough to make the new elements we’re implementing really stick.

We, our church and the Christian church as a whole, need to constantly evaluate why we choose certain songs, graphics, videos, and even the order of our services to see if all of these elements best portray what we are trying to do as a church. Do the songs and videos used complement the message? Is the type of music chosen for the service inspiring worship and guiding the hearts of those in attendance? Are we grabbing the attention of the congregation through the entirety of the service? Are we pushing the envelope enough to reach the younger, edgier generations, but not driving away the older generations who helped build the church from the beginning? Is every individual involved serving with the humbleness that Christ himself focused on during his time on earth? How are we striving to benefit the needs of the multiple generations already attending our churches and ensuring what we do will also reach new comers with open arms?

Chris really nailed it about what we should be doing as a church: “We want to always be about reaching people in ways that are fresh, authentic, and relevant to them wherever they are in their lives.  We want to do whatever it takes to knock down the barriers that have been put up about church, about religion, about God.  And we want to keep our options open for ways to do that.”

We know the what. We know the message. We know the Lord. Now we need to evaluate and plan the why behind what we do. If you are involved in church planning and can’t come up with a good answer to why you do what you do, then it’s time to re-evaluate your methods. Sharing the love of Christ is not a job we should ever take for granted. Every step we make should be better planned than everything else we do in life. Our methods really do come down to life or death. And that’s a heavy load to bear.