Bring Your Questions to Church
I've always felt like we should experiment with our Saturday night service at Ebenezers. That is where we record our messages in high-definition for our webcast, podcast, and video messages. So in a sense, the congregation at Ebz is a live studio audience. A few years ago, I had this thought: I wonder if the early church was more like a talk show with a live studio audience than what we call "church."
Fast forward. We're going to try to make our 6:30 service on Saturday night more interactive by adding a question and answer time after the message. I honestly have no idea how it'll turn out, but everything is an experiment. This just felt like the right series to try it out. I think the church is really good at answering questions no one is asking. What if we encouraged people to bring their questions with them to church?
So this weekend I'm talking about The Sexy Elephant and we'll open it up for questions. We'll take live questions, but we'll also take email questions or blog questions.
Anybody have any burning questions about sex for this coming weekend? I'm a little scared. Especially with this topic. And some questions are best discussed in a one-on-one or small group context. But if the question is asked in the right spirit, anything is fair game. There is so much sexual confusion in our culture and I think part of the reason is that the church doesn't talk about sex. We don't know what the Bible says. So we don't have a theology of sexuality.
Let the games begin!
Fast forward. We're going to try to make our 6:30 service on Saturday night more interactive by adding a question and answer time after the message. I honestly have no idea how it'll turn out, but everything is an experiment. This just felt like the right series to try it out. I think the church is really good at answering questions no one is asking. What if we encouraged people to bring their questions with them to church?
So this weekend I'm talking about The Sexy Elephant and we'll open it up for questions. We'll take live questions, but we'll also take email questions or blog questions.
Anybody have any burning questions about sex for this coming weekend? I'm a little scared. Especially with this topic. And some questions are best discussed in a one-on-one or small group context. But if the question is asked in the right spirit, anything is fair game. There is so much sexual confusion in our culture and I think part of the reason is that the church doesn't talk about sex. We don't know what the Bible says. So we don't have a theology of sexuality.
Let the games begin!
13 Comments:
I love it! I really started getting into this idea after getting connected with a guy named Bruxy Cavey, the teaching pastor at a church called The Meeting House near Toronto. They do a "Q & Eh?" (he's all Canadian) just about every week and it is great sometimes and a flop others but it is always real.
Wow, this is a bold and GREAT idea. That's some serious chasing the lion to take up this task.
I can't think of a question at this moment but I'll mull it over. Just wanted to say what a great idea I think this is.
i can't wait to listen to the podcast.
Hi Mark,
I do talk backs on occassion and it is a wonderful thing. If you do more than Q&A, be sure to use a handheld mic and stand there close by so that you can get the person to wind down if they get going long. All you do is move closer or reach for the mic and that will get them to begin to wind down.
I've always thought this was a great way to avoid the talking head and to actually learn from one another.
It will keep you on your toes, but you are up to that!
This is wonderful idea and I know it will be a blessing. I'm responsible for the young adult ministries in my church and in one of the ministries we have a discussion vs. a straight bible study and it works. It's a good thing for people to be able to articulate their questions 1) so that God, through the Holy Spirit can help them. 2) people can hear they someone else has the same question. This will be great!!
I know a lot of Christians are wondering "how far is too far" when you are not married. Though, as I have heard many people say, the real question should be, "how far away is far away enough?" Also, the topic of pornography is always an important subject to bring up.
Mark, as a pastor, I'm glad to hear you're doing this. That way when people ask me a tough question, I can just tell them, "There's this guy you can email at mark@theaterchurch.com..."
(Just kidding.)
I'm sure you'll have a blast with the new format and I'm expecting we'll be hearing about the awesome ways God uses it.
One potential question, what are some ways to combat temptation when traveling alone for work? Are there certain things you've found to be particularly helpful?
Open Source Branding is what I call it. Seth Godin talks about it in a recent post and puts it this way,
The real answer is simple: be transparent, do good work, answer your legitimate critics in the same forum or through your actions.
People have questions and sometimes they need open dialogue about it.
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Great idea!!
I had always hoped that you could/would turn the downstairs into a coffee bar of sorts right after the service, so that people could stick around and interact with each other more easily and have discussions in a relaxed environment. I think it would be a tremendous help for new people, since many probably feel a little lost, and might not be comfortable just walking up to a random person (or start asking questions in front of a big audience right away).
I'm looking forward to the whole thing, I think you picked an interesting sermon to start this experiment with (awkward!!);)
Keep it going, you are the best church I have ever attended!
Please keep us posted on how this went over. Our church might not be comfortable with that right now (hey, we're so small we don't have a Saturday night service), but maybe for the future that might work.
Mark,
We have begun experimenting in this way too, but through text messaging. During the message, our people can text their thoughts or questions to a cell number that is provided on the screen. The questions / comments are filtered for discussion / review at the toward the end of the night. This experiment is working well.
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