Purpose vs. Style
This weekend, somewhere around 100,000 evangelical churches will gather for a Sunday service … and that’s just in the United States. Out of these, a fair-sized chunk will gather with a specific purpose in mind.
Whether it’s a purpose that is determined in some back-room deacon’s meeting just prior to Sunday, or a thought-out and planned-out philosophy that paves the way for methodology, most of us have a purpose.
But does purpose drive style, or does style drive purpose?
Earlier this year I read The Consumer Church: Can Evangelicals Win the World Without Losing Their Souls? It’s a dated (and now out-of-print) book that sheds light on early 1990s ecclesiology. And I found this quote to be interesting:
What is the purpose of the Sunday morning gathering? Is it for worship, edification or evangelism? Does the congregation meet primarily for God’s benefit, for the benefit of its own members, or does it primarily try to attract spiritual seekers from the larger community?
The question of purpose must precede the question of style because a congregation’s style of worship is the expression of its purpose in gathering. Church leaders must make scores of decisions about the Sunday morning experience but most of them depend upon the question of purpose. “Are we here primarily to worship God, to nurture the church family or to present the gospel to unchurched visitors?”
Church leaders make a string of decisions. Should we encourage people to carry their own Bibles or provide pew Bibles for unchurched seekers? What are the purposes and procedures of Holy Communion? Is it for the celebration of members or for the affirmation of all attenders? How should the church welcome guests? Do visitors stand to be introduced, as a symbol of a congregation’s friendliness, or do they go unnoticed, in order to avoid embarrassing them? Should we highlight the offering for the member or downplay it for the guest? Questions of this sort arise whenever we are not clear in our own thinking about our own particular church’s calling or purpose.
Chances are you’ve been a reader long enough to know my answer to this question: if we’re asking should a church let purpose drive style or style drive purpose? the answer is yes.
We should plan the worship service with both the long-time believer and the first-time guest in mind. We should create artifacts of the service that have meaning for those who have been there and those who are new there. We should not water down the gospel to make it more attractive to the masses, but present it in all its glory, knowing that the unfiltered gospel is the most beautiful kind of beauty we can show to those who show up.
In your service, does purpose drive style, does style drive purpose, or is your answer like mine – a resounding yes?
