I'm not sure that unchurchy is an actual word. But NCC has always strived to be an unchurchy church. Let me explain. While we are orthodox in belief we're somewhat unorthodox in practice. We cherish and celebrate the traditions and ordinances of the church like communion. But we try to practice them in ways that don't allow it to become an empty religious ritual. And our target is the unchurched and dechurched so we try to avoid churchianity and christianeze. We want to remove religious barriers that would keep people from Christ. That is one reason why we meet in marketplace environments like movie theaters and coffeehouses. When I say unchurchy church I certainly don't mean church-lite. That doesn't mean we dumb-down or water-down the gospel. It simply means we're trying to do church in relevant ways. Afterall, irrelevance is irreverence! You've got to incarnate before you indoctrinate. And I mean indoctrinate in the healthy sense of the word.
Having said that let me say this. People still want their church to feel like church to one degree of another. People from a high-church background may want more traditional elements than someone from a low-church background. But one way or the other, we need elements that keep us anchored.
Here are two elements that I've found help church feel like church for people from a church background. But they aren't really turnoffs for most unchurched people. They certainly aren't the only elements that meet this criteria, but they are two of them. The elements are benedictions and hymns.
I try to do a benediction at the end of services. While that sounds like high-church, I really think it is a pastoral function with biblical roots dating back to the Old Covenant priests. I take that part of my pastoral role seriously. I'm blessing people before they go. My fall back benediction is: May the Lord bless you, and keep you, and make His face to shine upon you. But I also love Ephesians 3:20. I also pull out the Jude benediction occasionally.
I've also noticed that when we sing a hymn at NCC it feels like church :) And it's a good feeling. We've been a little more intentional lately about mixing some hymns into our worship sets. It is amazing the way the volume and participation goes way up on hymns. It's like our congregation turns into a choir.
I love the our newer worship choruses. And I love redeeming popular songs like we do in God @ the Billboards. But hymns seem to round out our diet--musical protein. We don't use hymnals and we often remix the music, but hymns make church feel like church.
Random thoughts.
Having said that let me say this. People still want their church to feel like church to one degree of another. People from a high-church background may want more traditional elements than someone from a low-church background. But one way or the other, we need elements that keep us anchored.
Here are two elements that I've found help church feel like church for people from a church background. But they aren't really turnoffs for most unchurched people. They certainly aren't the only elements that meet this criteria, but they are two of them. The elements are benedictions and hymns.
I try to do a benediction at the end of services. While that sounds like high-church, I really think it is a pastoral function with biblical roots dating back to the Old Covenant priests. I take that part of my pastoral role seriously. I'm blessing people before they go. My fall back benediction is: May the Lord bless you, and keep you, and make His face to shine upon you. But I also love Ephesians 3:20. I also pull out the Jude benediction occasionally.
I've also noticed that when we sing a hymn at NCC it feels like church :) And it's a good feeling. We've been a little more intentional lately about mixing some hymns into our worship sets. It is amazing the way the volume and participation goes way up on hymns. It's like our congregation turns into a choir.
I love the our newer worship choruses. And I love redeeming popular songs like we do in God @ the Billboards. But hymns seem to round out our diet--musical protein. We don't use hymnals and we often remix the music, but hymns make church feel like church.
Random thoughts.
3 Comments:
Thank you so much for making an effort to incorporate hymns and benediction. It just doesn't feel right when a service ends with "Thanx for coming, bye."
Hi Mark.
Absolutely agree with the Hymns and Benediction. We incorporate these at the Kingdom Fellowship evening and have found a greater focus through their operation.
Also with the Lord's Table. Took a few weeks before finding the way to celebrate this means of Grace in a small group that caused the least amount of 'jarring', among the group.
Just my thoughts.
God Bless.
The words of many hymns seem to come from deep places ...deep places within ...deep places of need, deep places of conviction, deep places of hope... I think the hymns we are singing are important not because they give a churchy feeling, but because we need to go there, to acknowledge our need and to be healed and restored.
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