This weekend we JACKED UP our order of service at Mountain Lake and did everything BACKWARDS (even down to the way we collected the offering)! What surprised even me was how much those changes cultivated an environment for passion. I really believe we gave God more space to work in our services because we chose to change things up. I was even paying more attention than usual in our services! God spoke to ME more!
As a church leader, I am learning more and more the value of "consistent inconsistency". This is something we are going to build into our worship environment more and more as the weeks go by. I really believe change cultivates passion for our worship of God. As a church leader, if your church has gotten into a rut in your worship services, JACK IT ALL UP and give God some new room to work! Change cultivates passion! Here's the challenge: You;re going to have to take some risks. And some people won't like it. But most people are DYING for it! We'd rather freak people out every once in a while at MLC than kill them slowly spiritually in our services!
Here are some ideas for change:
Change the entire order of service for a weekend or a series. Make a decisions that nothing can be in the same place for that week
Change your service times ( you underestimate this one)
Start a new service
Dress differently for a message series (I wore a suit this past weekend! I've gone barefoot for a message series before!)
Re-order all the seating in the auditorium (caution: this will mess people up!)
Re-arrange everything in your foyer or lobby
Change the type of music you do for a weekend or entire message series
Change the name of your church ( I actually have a close friend
in a new church start averaging 700 in attendance that's about to
change the name of his church! Kudos to you, man!)
You get the point? Is changing it up Biblical? Believe it or not, it is! Because it keeps THIS from happening:
Matthew 15:8 says: "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away." Don't let this become YOUR church! Don't let this become YOU! Change it up! Change cultivates passion. Let God bring change in you and your church this week! JACK IT UP FOR HIM!
If you have other ideas for jacking up things in your church or church services, drop a comment and share it with everyone out there...
Yea. We gotta change things and move as the Lord leads us. Change makes us open and receptive.
Posted by: Mike | July 31, 2007 at 08:29 PM