The Experiential Church

What a fun, meaningful, inspiring, God-centered week! Yeah I'm still exhausted but I just gotta say how encouraging it has been to see people growing in their love for Jesus because of the week's worship gatherings. The collection has been a real evolving work-in-progress for us and this year it really hit me how much more significant gatherings are when they are experiential.

Our VBS has been using Group's curriculum for a few years now. We've noticed that kids LOVE the Bible times more with this curriculum than with others. We obviously want them to love every station, but we certainly want the Bible lessons to be remembered and put into practice. But why do they love Bible time? It is experiential. The kids DO the lesson, not see it, not hear it, they themselves DO it. Can it work for adults?

Once adults move beyond the immediate inner groan of "is he really going to make me do this?" They truly do retain more for a longer amount of time and it means more to them for the long-run. This doesn't eliminate the preaching ministry of the Church, but it does tell me that if I can get people to involve themselves somehow in the Word, it will benefit their walk with God more than merely listening could.

Another word about marketing the Church. I hate the word, you hate the word, but you get my drift... when I tell someone about our Easter gatherings, what makes ours stand out from any other one? There is a church in town that does a phenomenal play/musical every Christmas and Easter. This is the first year I have noticed other churches advertising a play at their church too. Why would I steal another church's idea and do it poorly. I don't have actors, so it will stink. We're doing something, somethings, that no other church is doing. I had a good talk with one of our elders about marketing this corner-on-the-market for next year. Its a great idea.

Here is the rub. Why does it have to be special seasons that we get experiential? If we do it all the time, it loses its edge. If we do it once annually, it communicates that we can only be edgy occasionally. People want to be loose / cutting-edge / different / in-the-unknown occasionally.

I'm just throwing ideas out there. Just rambling really. Rap with me if you want to engage on the issue. I guess it would be good to go over WHAT we actually did. I'll post later about that. I just didn't want this blog entry to be too long.