A New Approach to Church

I have been doing a lot of thinking recently. Some of the podcasts I have been listening to have been talking about what the original church looked like. I have also been reading a lot of blogs from church leaders that have been writing about what the church should look like in the 21st century. I have had conversations with other Christians that freely admit that the way we do “Sundays” is not how the early Christians would have done it. In fact, some of these conversations discuss how meeting during the week for bible studies seem to be more in line with what the original Christians had in mind than what we do formally on Sunday mornings.


There seems to be a growing number of people who look at our Sunday morning rituals and are starting to see that they are not conducive to building relationships. We come to a church building, sit in pews facing forward, sing songs to God, but rarely engage in meaningful relationships with those around us. Is it any wonder that churches all across the country are decreasing in attendance? At the same time, this is why home churches, and small group ministries are growing. Let’s face it: one of the main reasons the early Christians met was to foster closer relationships.

I like the concept of home churches and small groups, because these environments allow relationships to grow. But I can’t abandon the thought that we can do something with these multi-million dollar buildings. There is all this SPACE that can be utilized! Some have gymnasiums, cafeterias, preschools, coffee shops, etc. Some churches are massive. Some have their own exit ramps from interstate systems. There is something about church buildings that still draws us to them. Then there are the smaller churches. They may not have a gift shop, but they were still a million dollar investment. And all across the country there are a lot of these churches that sit vacant. It seems such a waste of money to see a church building just sitting there, empty.


And yet, when I talk to people that attend smaller churches, most talk about the relationships they have fostered. It seems, smaller congregations are much more suitable to creating strong relationships than larger ones. That is why many congregations (mini and mega included) have small group ministries. People develop strong relationships in small group settings.


So back to the my original statement: I am hearing lot about how the way we do things on Sunday mornings isn’t the way it was originally intended, and this environment isn’t good to develop strong relationships. So I started working on something that is designed for smaller churches, that is modeled after the mega church environment where there is a lot going on because there are so many people. What if we could create an environment that felt like it “flowed”? What if we could create an environment that allowed individuals to choose when they worshiped, when they went to class, provided time to fellowship, and offer periods of counseling? Below, is what came out of a late night discussion with a great friend of mine.



I was thinking of how the Jewish temple was always open. People did not always arrive at the same time, although they did have some set hours for prayer, etc. Something was always going on. People “flowed” from one aspect of the temple to the other. Jews wanted to go to the temple. To them, that was where God was. For us today, we know that God lives inside of us, but there is still this strong desire for us to “get together”. We have this deep desire to come together, but when we do and sit in a pew, or don’t talk with any one, we sometimes don’t feel fulfilled. We “checked a box”, or did our part by showing up on Sundays, but there was still something missing. Let me try to explain each of these time frames and how they interact with each other.

Communion – Why do we come together? The purpose of Sundays gets its roots from Acts 2:43-47 (one of only a few passages) that mention the believers coming together to take the Lord’s Supper. Communion is an extremely important event to a Christian. It is a meal where we are to discuss, reflect, teach about, etc. what Jesus did for us. This part of Christianity can actually be dated back to the Passover, which God instituted with the Israelites in the book of Exodus. It is one of the most important aspects of being a Christian.
This time could be started with songs as a large group. We would be sitting around tables where discussion could be easier than in pews facing forward. Maybe some would get up and congregate with other families. Maybe, background music would be played. This would also be a time where parents could discuss more openly about why Jesus died, and go back to the command given by God in Deuteronomy 6: 4-9, “…repeat them [commands from God] again and again to your children…”

Worship Experience – As you can see, the worship experience continues for almost three hours. This a period where people can gather and sing, have a prayer, read scripture, play a video, give a declaration, etc. The beauty of this time is that it is not scripted. It would also be a smaller group setting (depending on the number in your congregation). This type of environment would lend itself to parent’s encouraging their children to lead a song, give a prayer, etc.

There would be facilitators who could start songs, prayer, play a contemporary song, etc. but they were not doing this the entire time. If someone felt moved to lead a song, they would do that. It’s important to note that the same facilitators would not be there the entire three hours. This time would be managed by multiple facilitators that could be scheduled at different times. The entire church body could come and go as they pleased. According to how they were participating in the other areas of the building would dictate when or how long they stayed in the worship experience. And without a scripted order of worship we would actually be giving the Holy Spirit the opportunity to do his job and lead worship. The body would be lifting itself up instead of having a small number of people being overworked and somehow being promoted into a ‘higher’ level of Christianity.

Classes – each of the classes are in 50 minute blocks. It’s important to note that these classes in the diagram above are examples. They could be any number of classes, arranged in any number of orders. The point of the diagram is to show that multiple classes are going on. Members can choose how many classes they want to attend, depending on the topics and the needs they have on their lives.

Family experience – This aspect of the Sunday morning worship is important as well. This is the time where parents and children are being taught and engaged as a family. For us, family experience is when we do our high energy music, skits, videos, audience participation, etc. It’s a production and is designed to introduce the bible story to be focused on for the week. It is very high level, and it is very entertaining. This way, it is more memorable. That is why it is important that parents of these children are present and involved. The children are going to be asking questions about characters in the skit, and the parents should know what is going so they can answer their children’s’ questions appropriately.

Large group – This is a period where the children are in a large group setting without the parents. The bible story is reinforced one more time, and there is possibly a video or multimedia presentation to compliment the bible story.

Small group – this period is when children are broken into groups of 5 – 8 where the small group leaders can go over the bible message one more time, while also fostering relationships from child to child.

So what would a typical Sunday look like? I created a couple of examples of how I think different types of families could participate in this form of coming together.

Example #1 – A typical family would show up at the church building around 9am. They would go to the worship part for about an hour, and then head to Family experience. During this time, mom and dad would be engaged with their children as they start to focus on the bible story of the week. When the children go to Large Group, the parents can then go to a class that is available. In this particular example, it could be a class on handling money responsibly, or a study of the book of Acts. After this 50 minute block, the family would come back together to have communion with other families. There would be songs sung as a large group. During this time, the parents would talk to their children the importance of remembering what Jesus did. It’s also possible that other families would migrate from table to table, having conversation and fellowship with each other.

Example #2 – An empty nest couple could attend this congregation by showing up around 8:30. They like the idea of getting their morning started early. Again, this communion period would be started with songs, a group of families would be gathered, and the focus would be on taking a meal together, remembering what Jesus did for them. After a period of time the empty nesters decide to go to the class on The Beatitudes. They like this class, as it is a lecture style class. It is very similar to sermons they have experienced at other churches. After this class, they meet some friends, and fellowship with them for a few minutes before going off to the worship part of the congregation. After a period of worship (the length of which is their choosing), they decide to leave, going about their Sunday. (Or in a radical way of thinking – they finish with their personal worship by 11:00 and can now lead a small group of children and participate in growing the next generation as well)

It’s important to note that the focus is being fluid from one aspect of a Sunday morning to another. We should not get hung up on the schedule. There are many ways this type of Sunday morning can be scheduled. This is not just a three service church – the worship experience is fluid and nonstop. The classes would change over time and potentially the time your family arrives/departs would change as you attend the portions you need, in theory allowing you to mix more fully with the entire congregation instead of early and late service attendees never overlapping. There is no more early and late sessions. The worship experience is dependent on those in the room at the time – if it isn’t what you like, you played a part in making it that way. I recognize that this change would take A WHILE to get used to, but should encountering God be such a habit that we no longer have to think about it to do it?

So my question to you is… would you attend a church like this?