The Sunday morning worship gathering is for believers. The Sunday morning worship gathering is to reach those far from God. The Sunday morning worship gathering is to teach the Bible. The Sunday morning worship gathering is for.....you get the picture.
There are lots of ideas as to whom exactly the audience is when a local church gathers together on Sunday. Just so you know where I'm coming from, I think the teaching time in a church service should be geared toward equipping followers of Jesus to follow Jesus, be transformed by Jesus and join the mission of Jesus (this is our church's mantra!). This Sunday I'm starting a series, which I'm calling A Skeptics Guide to God and Faith. This is a series designed to engage the spiritually curious. One could even argue the spiritually curious are the primary target of this series.
So why would we have a sermon series designed specifically for people who don't believe the gospel? Before I answer that question, Paul wrote something which I find extremely helpful in 1 Corinthians 14....you know, the tongues chapter....the chapter that has caused church splits, new denominations...yes that chapter.
I'll paraphrase and I encourage you to read the passage slowly to see what you think: when the church gathers, the church (that is believers, those who make up the ekklesia) are to be built up.
Ahh....the Sunday morning message should be concerned with helping followers of Jesus learn the Bible and apply their lives to the Bible. Yes, I think so.
But, Paul goes on to say that if the whole church is speaking in tongues and outsiders and unbelievers are present they will think the church is crazy. Now, your church may be crazy, that's not the point.
Paul is concerned with the unbelievers and outsiders who are in the worship gathering. He's not only concerned with believers learning the Bible and going out and leading people to faith and then bringing them to church (which is great when that happens!). If that were only the case, the church would still just be believers. He is also concerned that the spiritually curious will attend a service and walk away not understanding anything.
I think this is important. Really, this conversation could go lots of different directions at this point, so let's just hone in on one point.
What is a good way to equip followers of Jesus to engage the world in which they live and engage the spiritually curious (outsiders and unbelievers)? I'm glad you asked.
I think churches should teach an apologetic series once a year.
"Yeah, but I only preach the Bible." Yes, we should teach the Bible and I understand that when Paul was at the Areopagus he was in the public square and not at church.
Just think with me a moment.
If I, as a pastor and primary teacher in my church, am called to equip the followers of Jesus to think and be missional, should I not be concerned with equipping them to engage in the public square...you know, the place where they live the majority of their lives.
I live in a very post-christian context. My guess is you do as well. Yes, I want the members of my church to know the Bible. I want the members of my church to love Jesus. I also want the members of my church to engage their world, which is one of our church's major values.
By having a series where the target audience is the spiritually curious person, our members are being equipped to talk with their spiritually curious friends, family and co-workers.
You can teach your members the 'tone' of speaking the truth in love and not just being a big fat jerk face. Which, I think, we can all agree is a good thing.
Here are two reasons why you should teach an apologetic sermon series once a year.
1) You'll engage the spiritually curious in your midst and it might even be a series that some friends and family of your church members might attend and get a taste of heaven, which is what I believe the local church is... a taste of heaven.
2) You'll be teaching your members how to engage their world. They have conversations with people that think science disproves God, people who believe the Bible is a bunch of fables and is against gay people, so obviously it can't be true. They have conversations with people who think a good God would never allow evil and suffering, therefore there can't be a good God.
Is your church helping your members address these questions, with more than the answer, "you just gotta have a little faith"?
If the answer is no, then the question has to be asked: are you equipping the members of your church to reach the world in which they live?
As previously mentioned, I'm about to do a series called "A skeptics guide to God and Faith." If you want the messages and artwork, subscribe or message me if you're already subscribed and I'll send you everything...for free.
I can't promise it will be the greatest apologetic series, but it's what I can offer. I want to offer it, because I want to do everything I can to help you lead a small church that takes the mission of Jesus seriously. Let's change the world for the glory of God, starting right where God has us.
Cheers!