The last few years, the term "seeker sensitive" has floated around evangelical Christianity. Essentially, the term refers to the church's ability to accommodate outsiders' feelings, emotions, and basic expectations (about how church is supposed to be). So, these could be things such as purposefully funny announcements, messages crafted with ultimate care so the non-believer is not offended, secular songs played as an intro to make outsiders feel less out of place, or serving popcorn and coke during service to make you feel like you are at a movie...I think you get the idea. Now, if you are an active member of the Church of Christ, these are things that you probably aren't to familiar with. One example of this for us however, is found in the form of our worship-acapella singing. Here's a few bones I have to pick.
1. Acapella music is not the only way to worship God...and that's okay. I love good acapella singing just as much as the next guy, let's just stop making it an issue. It's getting old. We're over it.
2. Stop trying to entice to people into worship by telling them the worship sounds awesome. What if you're at a congregation full of bad singers or where the worship sounds bad? Seriously though. If we put all this weight and importance into worship being a main part of how outsiders experience God, and they never experience God through worship...what then? "Oops? God wasn't here today?" (Side note: Worship is extremely important and is one of the ways I personally experience/connect with a part of God. However, there are plenty of people that don't connect through God this way.)
3. I'm all for making worship sound good (praise team, no praise team, band, no band, congregational, buying a nicer sound system,), because when it doesn't, it is distracting to the worshiper. Who cares if sounds bad to an outsider? That's not the point. I hope worship isn't the only avenue we provide for outsiders to connect with/experience/see God's presence in their lives.
Instead of trying to be seeker sensitive in everything we do during corporate worship times, we shouldn't have to apologize for the traditions our faith heritage has chosen to follow. I realize these thoughts may not change how your Sunday morning service looks at all. I just hope the church begins to realize that worship of God is for God’s people. I believe this is a big part of why there are so many nominal Christians in the church. We have sold people on the idea that inviting your neighbor to church is your only basic duty as a Christian. What if inviting your neighbor to church was actually the last step in the evangelism process? Instead of inviting them to church and hoping they have some magical experience, we should learn better how to share our lives with them.
What do you think? Is there value to be found in being "seeker sensitive" in everything the church does?
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