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November 7, 2007
Mega Church Worship
Here's a video from NY Times website about a church that's practicing a classic mega-church worship format. They have three different services that are distinguished by the generational demographic that they are targeted to: Boomers+, Gen x, and Millennials.
There are advantages to this style of worship. It is very "seeker-sensitive" which means it is easy for someone to attend one service and immediately understand the worship and be able to feel like they fit in. It is also easy for the regulars to be able to worship in which ever style they prefer.
However, these advantages are the exact things that I believe make it so unlike what the bible describes the church to be like. In Acts, you get a picture of young and old, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, all worshiping and living in community. This is the worst kind of pragmatism that can fracture a church and really deprive each demographic from the strengths of the others. Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials all need each other.
At NCF, we've extended that concept beyond generation into ethnicity and class. We want people to rub up against other disciples of Jesus who are radically different from each other. We need each other!
Let me know what you think...
Church Musican | By Kirk Ward | 9:34 AM
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Comments
I’m glad God’s moving on a massive scale; I just don’t like the tendency for the mega church to focus so much on advertising cultural relevance. I guess the different groups could make a newcomer feel more comfortable, but God’s word seems to focus more on community than comfort, and forming small homogenous communities seems to take away from that theme? Personally, my experience with a mega church entailed ushering new believers into a Christian version of what they associated with in the secular world--I’m cringing as I remember a guy at my school playing me a Christian version of “Come As You Are” to show me how “cool” Christians can be(it was far from helpful; the next year I became a Catholic). If you’re a Christian just looking for a place to “fit in” it seems like preaching God’s message in Gal 3:28 regarding how He sees us in His community “no Jew or Gentile…slave or free…” would be more helpful than breaking off into groups of people very similar to yourself.
As far as the worship goes, I think some of the most growthful times have been while learning African, African American, Latin American, and Indian styles. I think if you’re not exposed to many worship styles you miss out on a lot joy in seeing God’s own love of diversity. Personally, I want to see what heaven will look like, and I’m glad New City desires to see that too.
Posted by: Heidi Vincent at November 7, 2007 1:11 PM
Sorry for the length of that last post...sheesh.
Posted by: Heidi Vincent at November 7, 2007 1:12 PM
Kirk, I saw the video too. Wondered if you had read the article that went with it? I had a few thoughts on it too. Feel free to check out. I gave the link in the URL spot...
I think you make a valid point about the importance of true community that isn't always easy. It's human nature to search for our own nitch with our own people. Thus the phrase, "Birds of a feather..."
It's interesting when you do try to bring generations together (or race or class) and then find that people do have their own preferences, but that we give up SOME of that for the goal of worshiping together in unity. And I think that is what much of it comes down to...
Worship isn't about me and what I get out of it. Worship is surrender to the Lord...and maybe to each other too. Just some thoughts...
Posted by: Sam at November 13, 2007 10:05 PM