Sunday Experience/Church Growth/1 vs 2 services

I hear Jeff saying a lot about growth, and some people challenging the definition, need and goals of said growth.

I feel that spending ANY time worrying about growth of a church and specifically expanding it’s sunday morning ‘event(s)’ , especially one that’s “radically committed to making a difference in our local community” is a serious misstep. Growth, especially when centered around a specific need or desire (in this case, affecting the community, ie: evangelism and outreach) must be organic. The Journey can spend the majority of it’s time and effort on a sunday service that is almost exclusively for Christians (although people will say this isn’t the case - time and time again has proven otherwise), or it can spend the majority of it’s time, effort and money on having an effect on the community.

I have a strong belief that some times (and, in this particular case) - the journey would become stronger in it’s primary mission by having a smaller body of people more committed to direct goals, as opposed to a larger body of people consuming a (well put, btw) LCD on sundays.

Also, the presentation doesn’t change the message. ‘Changing’ and ‘Trying new things’ during a sunday morning service doesn’t mean that you’re reaching out to more people, it means that you’re appealing to a different subset of the larger. Anyone who tries to debate this clearly hasn’t attended one of the ‘Town Hall’ type EPIC meetings (IE: Bitchfests) that have been occurring since the transition to Pioneer. Every new thing appeals to some, and some (often larger) group is in opposition.

Here is a specific example: The first week after the Unconference, we tried a fairly radical paradigm shift with worship - the band and seats arranged in a circle, different worship sets, different approaches.

I didn’t like most of the music.

I was skeptical of the circle, because it meant that others were watching me, especially during worship.

I was moved by the worship in way deeper and more profoundly than I have been in years. I literally could not move because I was weeping. God spoke to me and moved me in an extremely personal way.

I would trade every single worship service at the Journey since, to experience that again.

With about 3 exceptions, virtually every single piece of input on that sunday was negative. In fact, I believe I heard things like “..the worst thing the Journey has ever done.” and “..I would probably stop coming if this continues.”

So - different things appeal to different people, not more people.

I also feel like at this point, we don’t have a goal. We don’t have our eyes on what we want. We don’t know how we’re going to get there. Buzzwords and jargon and ambiguous mission statements aside, What does the Journey want to accomplish in specific terms? Why are we thrashing and casting about almost aimlessly, trying to find our ‘new’ identity without any idea of what that is. Church 2.0 isn’t an identity. Journey 2.0 isn’t an identity. 3 days a year isn’t making a radical difference.

I’m personally challenging everyone to think about what this church’s identity is, and what is your identity within it? What does God want from us? And honestly, I don’t have the answers. I have a fear that God is going to tell me, either through prayer or action “The Journey isn’t the place I need you” and “The Journey isn’t the place you want it to be.” And if that’s what God has for me or any of us, then I’ll trust in Him. I’ll trust that he’ll bring me just where he needs me and where I can be effective for Him.

I just don’t want the case to be God telling us “The Journey isn’t the place I want it to be.”

-T
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What if we’re just figments of God’s imagination?