I'd be interested to know what you call your own church gathering on a Sunday and why?
One of our guys whom I love very much asked me a very good question this weekend: "why do you call it a Sunday Service?" It made me stop and think - which is always a good thing I have discovered.
After all, other Vineyards and independent churches may call theirs "celebrations". While other churches still, simply "meetings" or "gatherings".
The problem is every word, more often than not, has various connotations for different people - good and bad. At one level "Sunday service" seems mundane and functional and a little, well, religious. So I understand why other churches call theirs "celebrations", but I guarantee this would be lost on a visitor or someone outside church culture. For them a "celebration" is equated to a birthday or wedding anniversary. Is that helpful?
Here's why we call ours a "church service".
We are an outward-focussed church. We are all about thinking from a visitor's perspective. Everything we do is set up for the newcomer, not the die-hard regular. Bill Hybels calls this "seeker friendly". We try to be that sole organisation that exist for its non-members.
If someone is seeking God they might just have enough knowledge to work out that Christians go to Church on a Sunday morning, so they will scan noticeboards, newspapers and websites for "service times". There seems little point adding additional words to the vocabulary for the uninitiated when they are already scantily understood.
When we use unintentional "Christianese" we are sending out a signal that we want people to abide by our rules. It raises the bar to finding Jesus. Now I know there are counter-arguments and I am sure that there are some very good ones, but I want our church to be that servant church in a serve-me world.
It's not a bad thing to be Jesus-servers as well as Jesus-followers. Therefore, unlike the traditional ecclesiastical model, I don't see why the senior pastor has to be the sole minister at all. Everyone can play! We are all ministers. After all, isn't this what the word is actually all about anyway?
My Bible says something about how Jesus came "to serve and not to be served". Like the traditional Jewish rabbi and his chosen disciples, we don't want just follow Jesus, we want to be like Him in every way. So to follow Jesus is to serve Him by serving others. Think about it, isn't this how Christ is revealed best?
So for the visitor who has not experienced his generosity and grace we want them to come and be served, which is why I like "Sunday Service". It is an outward-focussed expression of public worship and hospitality.
Of course, I am not suggesting ours is the only way, but it is a way and has significance for us. Meanwhile, if you are in a church, I'd love to know what yours is called.
ASD
