What Do You Want Out of the Worship Service?

A recent article by Shawn Vandergrift in CHURHLEADERS cited that there are 4 things in general that people want from a church: (1) acceptance, (2) accountability, (3) discipleship and (4) opportunity. I have also benefitted from the insights of the newest members of our church in a setting where some members who have been here for many years could hear and respond to that insight. I have learned a great deal about our church.
 
Let’s talk about acceptance, the article touches on the issue of relationship building beyond the first visit. This is something I strive to do but must be done in layers by the various ministries in the church, which means you. This is church done well. That is where Life Groups become absolutely essential.
 
When we engaged in 9 weeks of Life Group competition, everything went up, that is our morale, all of our metrics, our outreach, our first-time guests, and our assurance that when we work a plan, the work gets done. God blessed the effort to His glory.
 
Let’s remember what happened: Our July LG attendance average was 100. August 119, September 124. That’s average attendance. We also had 32 first time guests during that time because we believed and we worked. God did it!
 
What about accountability?  I think we just covered that in the 9-week competition discussion, we inspected, what we expected for the competition. We held our Life Groups accountable to do the very basics well and the numbers don’t lie, it made a difference. By doing so, we held individuals accountable to attend Life Group and Worship and it made a difference in the life of our church. Our life groups should be teaching how to live the Christian life and equipping believers for spiritual growth and life and that is the 3rd want, we call this discipleship.
 
So, the fourth want is opportunity, to have a place to be useful to God’s glory. When the same group of people do the same old things over and over opportunities are limited and growing believers will seek out opportunities in another place. We are supposed to be facilitating those opportunities here in our own church, which means in order to grow we have to involve more volunteers not less. We need to seek out fresh ideas and hidden talent and encourage people to use their gifts to the glory of God.
 
I have heard the cry for  a more a more meaningful worship service that doesn’t seem rushed and I know the need for qualitative Life Groups like we have discussed above and your church staff has heard you. Do you also know we doubled our Sunday night attendance by offering discipleship classes on Sunday afternoon? In our first term of C-1:28 Discipleship Classes, we engaged over 60 people in more detailed Bible Teaching and Biblical Life Application than a Sunday night service provides, which from an attendance perspective over double of the amount of people coming to a Sunday night service. 
The upside of what we did on Sunday nights, that the critics don’t measure: (1) We got more people involved in direct discipleship, twice as many.
(2) We gave young families more time to be at home as a family together, something their jobs and schools take away from them, to their detriment.
(3) Our direct discipleship offered these families a chance to learn the biblical family model in C-1:28 without adding to night time obligations and taking away family time.
(4) We made time and space to start new Life Groups but this got occluded by the negativity associated with something that we had not done before, in place of something we had always done (Sunday Night service). Holding on to an idea of something that is good and is important, but not viewed as such by the overwhelming majority of the church who have already voted with their feet, long before this pastor ever showed up. The goal is not, nor will it ever be, to do less for the kingdom. We have proven that we did more kingdom work through C-1:28 than a Sunday night service could ever do.
Well, if we had David Jeremiah as the preacher, we could have a Sunday night service. NOPE, Shadow Mountain doesn’t offer a Sunday night service either, because people do NOT attend Sunday night services very well. They do have a Saturday night service, and we can talk about that if you like, it might could work. Calvary Baptist in Oak Grove has to do what will connect the gospel message and Great Commission church work with the people in our community. Remember growing churches do things differently, not because they are growing but because they made necessary modifications in order to become a growing church. We found that Sunday at 4 works for a significant number of people in our church.
 
We do have Sunday Night of Worship every quarter, the next one is April 2nd on Palm Sunday at 6PM. If you have been frustrated because we haven’t had church on Sunday night, please make the most of this and save the date, right now! If you do not show up when we have Sunday night services, you forfeit your right to complain.
 
We are going to bring in something new, that our church needs and needs desperately called Sunday Night Celebration which will meet 8 consecutive Sunday Nights for a different kind of worship and prayer service. It will start at 6PM on Sunday Feb. 12th and the only way to understand what it is, is to be there. We haven’t done this before and it will be unlike anything you have ever seen on a Sunday night. So, vote with your feet, as we will hold 8 meetings in a row and measure the support and effectiveness. We will see how your feet vote!
 
Hey wait, what about a more meaningful worship service on Sunday mornings one that doesn’t feel rushed and has more time for different elements of worship to be incorporated at times? That is a great question. We have a plan for that as well as we process the input from various members, there seems to be a consensus for a more meaningful worship service, especially since we now have the business meetings after the morning worship service. Another thing we could consider is putting the financial report out monthly, but holding our business meeting quarterly. If a business meeting needs to be called, we can call one. These are all things that growing churches have considered and modified to make the church service more of a worship service and less of a civic club meeting.
 
Leaders lead, which always involves modification. You don’t need a leader to maintain the status quo.
Andy Goode
Lead Pastor