Cam's Blog
Secret #7: ‘Good’ Worship is what works in your place
You probably gave up your corner hardware store for Home Depot because of price and convenience not because you didn’t like the corner store. In fact the corner hardware store was lovely and sometimes we miss it especially when we go into Home Depot or Lowe’s looking for customer service. But, and this in an important exception, we still do most of our shopping at the Big Box store even though we may have liked the little hardware store better. Likewise, mega-churches are winning over more and more people because of congregational culture and programs not doctrine or politics. Americans aren’t flocking to mega-churches because they thirst for conservative theology but because growth-oriented congregations adapt their worship to our indigenous pop culture rather than hanging onto the forms, customs and music of 19th century classical Europe.
Imagine how long Home Depot would last if its Business Plan were to offer the consumer only the supplies and materials it believed the consumer “should” use rather than what the consumer wants. When we offer worship designed to preserve what we presume is the only right way to worship then we are simply saying to those with a spiritual yearning, “Go elsewhere.” The question is how not whether you will adapt your worship to exploit the niche you have chosen and so attract the prospects that inhabit that niche. The criterion for “good” worship is what works in attracting and retaining a growing number of people with whom we can then share the gospel.
Check back tomorrow for #8
Special Announcement coming Monday
Posted on Jun 24, 2010
