The Place with the Weekly Seminars

I read this statement in the comments section of a blog: "A one-hour Sunday morning service is NOT church, not if you don't have a community you go into the world with during the week."

I found that quite interesting. It's a matter of going to church vs. being the church. At my church we don't, in any organized way, go into our community together. But I think I pretty much know the people who are being the church beyond Sunday morning--who are seeking to shine their light and influence others.

But if a church merely consists of people who come together on Sunday morning for an hour or two, no matter how inspirational that may be, and then revert to their default behaviors the rest of the week...can you really call that a church?

Too many churches aren't really churches, I'm afraid. They are just organizations that offer an hour-long religious seminar every week.

Posted on May 2, 2007 10:57 AM|

Comments

Good point. I wish more of our lay people understood this... Hey, I wish more of our pastors understood this.

Posted by: Adam Will | May 2, 2007 05:32 PM

The older I get the more I believe that as we move further away from a liturgical service the closer we get to seminar type meetings. People don't go to church to participate in the worship in most Protestant churches, instead they go to have their needs met. Worship services are no longer about a unified group honoring God, but individuals looking to get something out of it.

I think you'll find that most church growth experts encourage this behavior, if not explicitly, at least as a natural consequence of their proposed methods. As long as the sermon is the climax of the meetings and ancillary services are the thrust of the organization, then there is no other result then a seminar mentality.

Posted by: Russel Trojan | May 7, 2007 12:13 PM

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