Since \u201cworship service\u201d sounded stuffy, ads for the new Saturday night gathering called it a \u201ccelebration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Greeters handed out \u201ccelebration folders\u201d instead of bulletins. Clergy wore jeans and polo shirts instead of vestments and the faithful sang along to slides projected on a wall, instead of using hymnals. The call to worship became a \u201cwarm up\u201d and the service ended with a \u201csee you next week\u201d benediction, followed by pizza. The \u201caction words\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s the sermon \u2014 led into question and-answer sessions. Often, the clergy yielded the floor to \u201cguest headliners\u201d who sang, spoke on social issues or discussed their latest books.<\/p>\n\n
In other words, this Southern California church created a \u201cseeker\u201d service to try to reach \u201cunchurched\u201d people who are more interested in spiritual issues than in conventional churches. This is happening nationwide, especially in the Protestant congregations that researchers call \u201cmegachurches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
What makes this case study interesting is that the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) of San Diego isn\u2019t exactly what most people would call a \u201cconventional church.\u201d It\u2019s part of a growing denomination composed almost entirely of gays and lesbians and their families.<\/p>\n\n
These days, even niche churches need to be user-friendly.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cA whole lot of the evangelical church-growth literature has been quite helpful to us,\u201d said the Rev. Don Eastman, who leads his denomination\u2019s Strategic Growth Initiative. The former Assembly of God pastor serves on the MCC\u2019s seven-member board of elders and works in it\u2019s global headquarters in West Hollywood, Calif. \u201cWhat we\u2019re learning is that it\u2019s crucial for a church to have a clear sense of how it views the world and to be able to communicate that vision to others. That\u2019s the challenge all churches face, today. It just isn\u2019t easy to reach new people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
In fact, the San Diego church\u2019s Saturday night \u201ccelebrations\u201d weren\u2019t a big success. So now it plans to experiment with Sunday night gospel music services. The congregation has set a goal of being a megachurch \u2014 with 1,000 to 2,000 members or more \u2014 within a decade.<\/p>\n\n
Others have caught this vision. The 30-year-old Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches sent a 50-member delegation to one of the spotlighted events on the church-growth scene \u2014 the Robert H. Schuller Institute for Successful Church Leadership at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif. Last month\u2019s gathering drew more than 2,000, including a Moslem cleric, said Eastman. The program included leaders from giant mainline Protestant churches, as well superstars such as Schuller and the Rev. Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church outside of Chicago.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI have always felt right at home at these meetings,\u201d said Eastman. \u201cIt\u2019s not that the people at the Schuller Institute have endorsed us. It\u2019s probably more of a \u2018don\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u2019 policy. But the whole point is to focus on what unites us, instead of what divides us. These meetings aren\u2019t about doctrine. They\u2019re about churches improving their music, their worship and how they communicate their message.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Eastman first attended the Schuller Institute in 1981, when he was the pastor of the MCC\u2019s new Dallas congregation. Today, the Cathedral of Hope has about 2,000 members and a mailing list of 30,000 names taken from its visitor\u2019s book. It\u2019s the flagship church in a 285-church network that is \u201cdetermined to be taken seriously as a church, not just as another activist group in the gay and lesbian community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n
Reaching that goal may require gathering tips from leaders in a wide range of churches, including some that reject the MCC\u2019s stands on gender and sexual orientation. That\u2019s the reality of life in the American marketplace, said Eastman. Many people are using the same techniques, even if they are delivering different messages.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cObviously, many churches interpret scripture in many different ways. Everybody knows that,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we have to do is present our view of the Bible with a sense of integrity. We have to offer a clear, coherent biblical viewpoint that makes sense to people. We\u2019re convinced we can find new ways to do that. We\u2019re getting better at it all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since \u201cworship service\u201d sounded stuffy, ads for the new Saturday night gathering called it a \u201ccelebration.\u201d Greeters handed out \u201ccelebration folders\u201d instead of bulletins. Clergy wore jeans and polo shirts instead of vestments and the faithful sang along to slides projected on a wall, instead of using hymnals. The call to worship became a \u201cwarm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n