Boring Churches
I’ve been thinking a lot in the last couple of days about this post from Bruce Johnson. Here’s the quick take:
"After visiting [this one church] I asked [my child] what they thought of this church. [This child] said, "Well, once I get used to being bored, I’ll be okay." Isn’t that an amazing statement? Already, by a young age, this child had come to the conclusion that if they were going to go to church, they had better get used to the idea of church being boring.
I grew up in an irrelevant, boring church. This might sound trivial to you, but one of the reasons we came to Granger and stay is because we know our kids (all four of them now) will not grow up thinking church is irrelevant and boring. You can check out the children’s ministry center to see why. It’s working for our kids, and it’s working for about 1,000 other kids every weekend. Here’s more of the story of how it all happened, or you can come and experience our WiredChurches.com workshop in November to learn more.
Also having background in a ‘boring church’ I can understand where you are coming from.
However I can also see how some people may lose track of the truth behind the entertainment.(from both the stage and the congregation)
I think it can be a problem when a group of people gathering to worship God turns into an audience (a group of people being entertained)
my $0.02
Good post. I’m the elementary director over at Fellowhsip, and I totally see the influence of kids onto their parents when the kids love church. If you think about it what is the number one thing on a kids mind. FUN!!! So, why wouldn’t we want to make a kids ministry fun. God loves it when we enjoy life, and when a kid is learning through fun then they are also developing a passion for what they are learning. Plus a persons morals and values are formed from the ages of 2 to 10. That’s my $.10. Sorry things are more expensive in Texas. That was with a discount too!
Good post Tony! Check out this quote from Jerry Seinfeld on my blog.
http://bigmarkmorgan.blogspot.com/2005/08/quote-time.html
Entertainment simply means to hold ones attention for an extended period of time. The longer we can hold someone’s attention, child or adult, the more opportunity we will have to be used by God to communicate the Gospel. Bore ‘em and you may only get one shot…your choice. Had I had a church like Granger or Fellowship Church while I was in elementary, jr. high, high school, and college, I’m convinced I would have avoided a lot of trouble that I found myself in.
By the way, when we were at Granger this summer my wife was so inspired by your Children’s Church area that she tried to revert to her childhood and asked if she could slide down those cool slides into one of the rooms!