I'll admit it, I go to church. I make it out at least once every month, sometimes even twice. I used to be a lot more regular, taking the messianic metamucil so to speak, but now I'm not. I'm ashamed to say it, a lot of the times that I do go, I don't really enjoy it. I can still appreciate the value that the experience can add to my life, but now I fear that there are too many layers in the church and too many layers of my skin to fully penetrate the soul.
| My Sermon Notes |
| • Churches spend far too much time trying to force understanding rather than trying to create experience.
• We COMMUNICATE God, instead we need to FACILITATE God. • We consume ourselves with description and delineation • We need to balance exposition & explanation with experience • We're telling our congregations to get out of their comfort zones in an environment devoid of discomfort • Not just opportunities to be an audience of the experience, but to become an actor in the experience; and acted upon. |
What I will say about my time in the pew today is this. Churches tend to spend far too much of their time trying to communicate a message than actually trying to provide an experience of that message. The pastor says, "This is true", and we say, "That is true". Then we leave and think not a lot more. Why? We had a monotone experience of truth. We heard, period.
A wise sage of the Canadian northeast once said, "People experience far more than they understand, but it is experience rather than understanding that influences behaviour." Churches spend (almost) all of their effort on communication and understanding. They spend very little time on creating an experience. They would do well, if their intended result is to
I want just once to walk out of a church service, like I have often walked out of a movie, and be a little uncertain as to what the whole thing was about. I want to be able to dwell on the experience, on the message, on the opinions. I was less propaganda (not in the negative) and more art.
Maybe I'm asking too much. Maybe not. But maybe.
Posted by McKormick at February 6, 2004 12:05 PM | TrackBackMcKormick,
I enjoyed reading your commends on the dangerous church stuff. I am the Lead Designer of a Dangerous Church. In fact, I found your comments while searching the topic in preperation for a new teaching experience series entitled, Dangerous Church. If your interested, I could get you a copy of the series experience once it is completed. We begin the first Sunday in September.
I agree that if we desire to connect with a culture that is becoming more and more EPIC, a word used by someone who has taught me many things to mean, Experiential, Participitory, Image Driven & Connectivity, we must learn to deliver an experience instead of simply a text focused oral presentation.
Our congregation is experimenting with different ways to make this happen. I know that there are many others artistically attempting to deal with this also.
I would appreciate your input as someone who attends church once a month or so.
What do you say, will you help?
Posted by: Brad at August 30, 2004 12:31 PM