Justin, as someone who responds to music and can feel the holy spirit's goodness through it, I would definitely miss worship services if they didn't happen... and at the church I interned at, the surrounding community would definitely notice if it didn't happen anymore.
Justin Wise
· 7 months ago
That's good to hear!
Reggie
· 7 months ago
I love the idea of pushing the limits of our worship services by adding interactive elements to them. I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Not just about how to use technology in worship but for the church in general. One big barrier to that in my church is the sheer diversity. We are a congregation of about 6000 in Silicon Valley. You'd think we'd be on the forefront of technology use but our challenge is that the congregation is all over the place as far as ethnicity (about 35% black and then a mix of white, hispanic, asian, and other ethnicities), age, as well as socio-economic standing. It's not uncommon to see somebody who was just released from prison worshiping next to a C-level exec or one of the players from the 49ers or Raiders. With that diversity it's tricky when it comes to integrating technology because it needs to be done in a way that doesn't cause division. Not everybody has access to the internet, let alone know what Twitter is. I love pushing the boundaries, though. Not just for the sake of pushing boundaries but for the sake of offering the ability for people to experience God in new and fresh ways.
I'd love to hear your thoughts. Is anybody in a similar situation?
Justin Wise
· 7 months ago
Reggie - for sure, there's definitely a "digital divide" that needs to be navigated well.
Case-in-point: Churches in the remotest parts of Africa could give two rips about what Twitter is (or what the internet is, for that matter). But it's not a part of the African culture. It IS part of our culture.... So how do we educate and utilize without marginalizing?
Great thoughts... How is your community doing it?
Dave Sandell
· 7 months ago
We're having a similar conversation in our church right now, as we begin a new service in the fall. I think our original intention was to break all of the rules and see what happens, but like your post on boundaries being helpful for creativity, we found that a wide-open spread left us all over the place, but a few limitations have helped our ideas flourish. For instance, simply having an order of service helped us to make each element go deeper. And while we have a different order of service than our morning services, it's not to be different. Rather, it's because based on our goals we believe it will serve us best.
I think that's what I want from the 21st Century Church. Not throwing out the rules for the sake of throwing out the rules, but rather re-examining the rules and infusing them with new life and new meaning.
PS - I love this conversation, and I love how you're thinking about using technology in your services. Do you have a video archive of what you did last week? I'd love to see it in action.
jason kramme
· 7 months ago
Heya,
To some extent the solutions that you've suggested are means of engaging apathetic/passive people who come to church. I think that instead of treating symptoms we need to treat the problem. To do that, I think that we need to improve our discipleship programs, which, in theory, make passive Christians non-passive Christians. A disciple of Christ is a person who does the things laid out in Matthew 25 or Mark 10. These are people who are engaging the hurts and injustices in the world; realizing the Kingdom of God in the here and now. I'm not saying that they are simply Christianizing social structures, business structures, or politics like advocates of the Social Gospel did at the begining of the 20th century.
jason kramme
· 7 months ago
Instead, their personal day to day lives are changed. They feed hungry people, give water to thirsty people, and serve. Being a disciple of Jesus in your day to day life makes both a qualitative and quantitative difference in the lives of others (and yourself). The God who's plan for the world is the impetus for someone feeding me when i'm starving is worthy of praise. The God who's plan i'm carrying out by feeding a hungry person, thereby changing their life, is worthy of praise.
Folks need to have a stake in what's happening at a worship service, and i dont think that we are going to do that by trying to out-culture culture. The church ought to leverage media and communications when it can, but it isnt the solution to the problem.
Bill Bolte
· 7 months ago
i'm following you jason. i think it centers around building disciples as well.
Justin Wise
· 7 months ago
In Niebuhr terms, what you're suggesting is Christ transforming Culture instead of Christ of Culture or Christ and Culture.
(For the record, I agree with you. My hope was to shine on a light on what could be strictly in the worship service itself.)
Great thoughts, Jason!
jason kramme
· 7 months ago
Thanks man, yeah, on the Niebuhr scale I'm a blend of Christ transforming culture and Christ and culture in paradox [which shows my Lutheran stripes ; ) ].
All Comments
I'd love to hear your thoughts. Is anybody in a similar situation?
Case-in-point: Churches in the remotest parts of Africa could give two rips about what Twitter is (or what the internet is, for that matter). But it's not a part of the African culture. It IS part of our culture.... So how do we educate and utilize without marginalizing?
Great thoughts... How is your community doing it?
I think that's what I want from the 21st Century Church. Not throwing out the rules for the sake of throwing out the rules, but rather re-examining the rules and infusing them with new life and new meaning.
PS - I love this conversation, and I love how you're thinking about using technology in your services. Do you have a video archive of what you did last week? I'd love to see it in action.
To some extent the solutions that you've suggested are means of engaging apathetic/passive people who come to church. I think that instead of treating symptoms we need to treat the problem. To do that, I think that we need to improve our discipleship programs, which, in theory, make passive Christians non-passive Christians. A disciple of Christ is a person who does the things laid out in Matthew 25 or Mark 10. These are people who are engaging the hurts and injustices in the world; realizing the Kingdom of God in the here and now. I'm not saying that they are simply Christianizing social structures, business structures, or politics like advocates of the Social Gospel did at the begining of the 20th century.
Folks need to have a stake in what's happening at a worship service, and i dont think that we are going to do that by trying to out-culture culture. The church ought to leverage media and communications when it can, but it isnt the solution to the problem.
(For the record, I agree with you. My hope was to shine on a light on what could be strictly in the worship service itself.)
Great thoughts, Jason!