Church Growth Secrets, part 4.

We have seen from the Scripture that the early Christian Church was seeker friendly, they geared their services to the non-believer. As a result, the Church experienced amazing growth.   But how is it possible to be receiving converts while at the same time feeding the flock?

The worship of the church can be a real time of blessing and refreshing to believers, while being exciting and entertaining to non-believers.  While I love the old hymns, they are nothing more that the contemporary Christian music of an earlier era.  At the time they were written many Gospel hymns were considered "over-the-top" by the traditional church.

The original music or worship of the Church was from the Jewish roots of the founding leaders, songs and psalms taken from the scripture. One can still hear this style of music in synagogues.  Later in the middle ages the chant had taken the place of the original Jewish-style songs. 

But as musical instruments became more common and available, the style of music changed again.  The pipe organ began to be a common fixture in larger churches.  Guitars and lutes were used in smaller services.  One of the first Christian songs specifically written to be played on guitar was Silent Night.  The church organ and broken down, and a simple song was needed that could be accompanied by guitar.

In the second half of the 19th century, both the portable pump organ and the piano began to appear in worship services.  The piano was a popular instrument in the theater and bar room, and was well-entrenched in the culture of that time. In fact quite a few Christian songs were sung to the melodies of familiar bar songs. Each time a new form of music entered the church there were those that resisted it.  But the non-believers loved it because it was like the popular music they enjoyed.  Songs like those of Stephen Foster spanned the gap from popular music to church music.

Today is no different.  The pop and rock music of our era has made the transition to the Church.  But while the instrumental music might sound like something from the Top-Forty, the lyrics of this music touch the heart and provide a wonderful expression of praise and worship for believers, while the visiting non-believer also enjoys the worship because the rhythm and beat of the music is like what he listens to on his iPod or car radio.

If you have ever been to a rock concert you have seen people listening to the music on their feet, arms upraised, often waving small flashlights, singing along with the performers and dancing in the aisles.  This is not too different from a congregation of Christian believers worshiping and praising God.  To be fully absorbed in worship can be a wonderful thing for those who are able to lose themselves in the spirit of the words and music of praise! 

So to conclude this session I will propose that for a church to be growing and dynamic it must have two things: First, a consistent message of Salvation presented by the pastor and second, a time of worship that is both uplifting and entertaining.  If you feel resistance to the word "entertaining" look it up in the dictionary and you will find one of the definitions is "To capture and hold the attention in a pleasing manner".  Certainly, we do not want our services to be "unpleasing", although I can tell you that I have been in a few congregations where the message and music were anything but pleasing.

So far we have spoken only of the main Sunday service of the Church. Next time we will get into aspects of "The Rest of the Story"