Say goodbye to the days when church was a safe haven from the “filth” of the world. One church in Seattle (that I used to attend) is incorporating some of today’s most provocative topics into their worship service. This ain’t your grandma’s church service. What would Focus on the Family say about this! I can just imagine the Pietists rolling over in their graves! What do you think? Is this stepping over the line? Topics long ignored by the church?
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6 comments:
As these are real questions people have, I don't think a congregational setting is the right place to have these discussions. Having to screen your children from the sanctuary just doesn't seem right. I would feel weird sitting next to my dad while this topic is being discussed. This seems more appropriate for a class or study group more than a church wide discussion.
I do think the idea of letting people submit annonymous questions is a good one though, it allows people to really ask what they want to know.
i think you need to be careful. be careful that the wrong people aren't there. i wonder if this is better to deal with in a smaller setting. this is displaying his opinion as right. that seems a little tough for me. he is a great man, but he doesn't have the perfect answer for everything.
i love it! talk about a real and open setting to talk about important issues! i do think that he should probably have a statement that says these are his beliefs, which I think he makes pretty clear when he talks about it. I think this, I think that. and he has some pretty good scriptural evidence to back up his statements as well.
my church did a month-long sermon series about pornography and it was amazing. based it off the xxxchurch.com tour. i have purposefully committed myself to a church that covers topics and problems like this rather than cover it up because it's important for people to discuss it.
i'm gonna steal the video from ya and post it on my blog! thanks ric! good find!
To be completely fair to Mark, in the beginning he does talk about the service being attended by adults without children. However, what do you think would happen if a new family in the area were to attend the service unaware of the topics to be discussed. I kind of like the idea of pushing traditional boundaries in a worship service setting, but I see this as potentially problematic.
I think this is sweet. As long as the service is prefaced before hand and people have the opportunity to leave (if they have children) and come back on Sunday mornings, I see no problem. If you tried to set this up as a small group or Bible study, you probably wouldn't have very many non-believers or "weaker" Christians attend. You would have a group of people who either already no the answers to a lot of the controversial questions or people who never find themselves in controversial situations.
I see the possible obstacles associated, but the opportunity is amazing. Jesus' said in Luke 19:10 that He came to reach the lost. The lost people (and even many "found" people) of our day need to be able to hear what God says about THEIR reality.
I would never encourage this in a service where children are present, too many questions could arise in their young minds... However, maybe a service with a disclaimer is just what some people need.
Hey Tyler, when do you think I will hear your dad teach on that question...?
People, what do you think worship services are about? It is obviously important to deal with these issues in the Church, but consider what has happened here: while being (I admit) a cool idea, live text questions turn the proclamation of the word of the Lord into a trivia session, and the preacher is reduced from the prophet of God, to the guy up front expressing his personal opinion about this or that.
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