“Entertainment” in church
I am consistently dumbfounded when a blog entry or comment is made about using “entertainment” to attract people to church is immediately rebutted by someone who is afraid that churches when they use “entertainment” immediately water down the Gospel. That if people come to such church on a Sunday, all that they are going to take away is that they were entertained, and then left unchanged. May I submit that there are a portion of churchgoers who go to a more traditional type of church, take away nothing more than, “that was a good sermon,” and don’t do anything about it the rest of the week. The issue is not the type of church, but how receptive are people to receive the Message when they are sitting there.
I try not to comment on such issues on other blogs, because often times a rebuttal will just add fuel to the fire of disagreement. For some I reason I chose churchmarketingsucks.com to break out of normalcy and make a comment. Go here to read it, it’s the third one down.
How in the world is a generation that has grown up with cable and satellite going to be reached without speaking their language? When the AVERAGE American watches three hours of TV a day, don’t you think that their minds have become used to receiving information a certain way? That information is well produced, well crafted, and placed into a neat 30 minute segment. As Christians, we have to “market” Christ. Not saying that we sell him like we’re selling dish detergent but to model to people the fact that life is much better with Christ than without him.
If I were in Africa, would I produce a video in English to tell them about Christ? No, I would speak to them in their language, or at least through a translator in a manner that they understand. Americans understand and are major consumers of media. You use media to translate the message, and then when they understand the message, they can then try to comprehend and understand the message, and make a decision about it.
Please by all means if you think God has called you to preach the Word in a contemporary way. Go do it. If called has called you to preach in a traditional way, go do it. If God has called you to preach in Swahili, please by all means, go and do it, and do it with all your heart soul and mind. But please, don’t discourage any way that God has called any messengers to preach.
I hate to answer people’s discouragement with more discouragement, but man, can’t we become more unified as a body of believers, and not belittle someone’s church?
I’m off my soapbox…for now.
