Engaging

As mentioned on an earlier post, I will be mentioning a number of things that I believe will be crucial for the postmodern church.

The first, and in no particular order, is that it has to be engaging. Today's church does not engage its constituents (members, crowd). It is more of a program or a show than a community. As someone whose struggled with a "call" in his life, I can tell you that I've never felt called to be in drama. Today's church is set up like a Greco-Roman amphitheater. To take the style of an ancient amphitheater and decide "Hey, this will be the best possible scenario for an engaging community" is to deceive ourselves. Long gone should be the day where you come to a church community and hide in the back. Long gone should be the time where you don't know the person sitting next to you or their family. There should be interaction with everyone, because, here is the idea, YOU MATTER. If you come to church, it matters. People should miss you when you are not there because you bring something unique to the table and that's important! Never let anyone tell you likewise. Today's church should engage your head and your heart. It's time to stop being professional showmen and professional pray-ers and time to start being professionally honest.

The church today needs to set itself so that it is engaging by nature. The engagement that exists in a small group is the engagement that we're talking about. The connection. The interest. You're understanding of the Native American woman next to you and her past and you help her and she helps you. The way we meet needs to change, the approach we bring needs to change. When someone leaves a church community meeting, they need to typically think "I could not have missed today, thank you God." Trust me, that can happen.

This one has been a bit of rambling and I want to preach now. I'll stop here and continue on tomorrow.