Buzz Word Church - 1

One of the great things I really don't enjoy about being involved in the missioner role is the sound bite and buzz word world that it drags you into. No matter what the area under consideration, there they are. Seeker-sensitive is an excellent example of this.

As we look at welcoming the 'non-churched' into church we are mindful of the problems that they might have with elements of the service and words we might use. This is excellent and by means of an example this also needs to be a consideration for those who are 'churched' (which I thought was something we used to do after childbirth until I entered this world!). So what must we look at and modify to become a safe and welcoming place?

To be 'successful' (what a naff word this is in a Christian context) we need to fill our church and this means making the consumer happy. Especially the first-time consumer! So what we do is we try to remove the embarrassing things in the hope that they will return. Now I asked some people what they thought might cause embarrassment or discomfort amongst the unsaved visitor. The answers included:

1. Sin - don't mention sin, because this affirms the 'killjoy' and 'condemning' stereotypes. In a sort of, "Diplomacy is the art of saying 'good dog' until you can find a stick!'. There is a great difference between building a relationship which gives you the knowledge and (possible) permission to address issues and the putting off of the issue because it might cause the person to never return.

2.Cherry Picking the Bible Verses - We must keep away from anything that might make us look anything other than affirming and positive about the bumps in other people's roads. I was rather surprised by the 'Keep the Bible passages safe!' school of thought - not what jesus did now, was it?

3. Preaching in the shallow end - If we spend much of our time speaking about mercy, then what is it that God has to be merciful about and what does it have to do with the people listening if they are all O.K.? Christ deals with all the BIG ISSUES - so shouldn't we?

Hopping from foot to foot and trying hard to mention that big issue only leads us to either ignore it completely or to set ourselves up for a massive gaffe of church-rocking proportions.

We do need to be careful about using jargon and esoteric language. We need to look at our building and consider what it looks and feels like to those who come in for the first time. We need to look at the services we put on and consider how they might be regarded if you'd never been into a church before.

I was recently told of an exercise given to a leadership team. Each of the members was given ten pounds by the dog collar with an instruction that they had to return the following week having used the money to put a bet on at one of the local bettings shops! The response to this:

i. I've never been in one before,

ii. I wouldn't know what to do,

III. It's not the sort of place people like me go into.

Isn't this what being seeker-sensitive means? Perhaps we all need to try this one - think we will where I find myself.