Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Pastoral Column for the week of July 27- Aug. 1: “What keeps people coming to worship?”

Last week I had lunch with a friend who has just moved back into Chattanooga and is in the process of finding a church home. During lunch, I asked him what he looks for in a church as he visits. He essentially evaluates three things: (1) message, (2) music (3) crowd.

Message: He wants the message to actually apply to real life situations.

Music: This person prefers contemporary worship. When he visits a church, he wants to sing songs that are "God centered" not "me centered."

Crowd: He looks to see if there are people his age and wants to see people excited about being in worship.

We all have a role to play in helping people stay a First-Centenary. The staff has to work hard at making sure the worship experience is all it can be, with the message, the liturgy, the music, the prayers, etc being God-centered and being relevant to our everyday lives. Each church member has to make sure and invite others to come and to help create an environment that causes people to want to come back. Just know that each person being in worship really does make a difference in someone else's worship experience.

For the purposes of all the facebookers and bloggers, I want to know what you look for in a church.

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