More options, please

Walking down Franklin Street I spotted a flier for a new church. In big letters it said "Church? Me? Well, maybe.." The target audience was people who couldn't imagine themselves attending a church. The quote was what the church imagined or hoped a flier reader was thinking. But a person who has a negative image of church probably has in mind a church experience very much like the one he/she would find in the church that posted this flier. That is, it wouldn't be much different from what they don't like.

In the more than 20 years I've lived in Chapel Hill, I've seen several new churches start up. Each claiming it is different, each saying *we* are going to reach the younger, college demographic. Yet the ways they differ from the existing churches is often superficial. The new ones will boast about being casual and approachable. That may mean they wear their shirt tails out and turn their amplifiers up to 11.  But they still stick to what has become a standard white Protestant service template: 3 songs, announcements, a special element (e.g., skit or song), sermon, and 2 songs. Black churches and non-Protestant churches do it differently, but they too seldom stray much from their own well trodden path.

Is this all there is? Is this array the limit of the ways that followers of Jesus can come together to honor him? I can't believe that it is. I can't believe we have exhausted the creative possibilities; and that if people don't like to stand up and sing, then sit down and listen to a sermon, their only alternatives are to grin and bear it or sleep in on Sundays. The value of traditions notwithstanding, I believe the church has gotten stuck in a rut and has failed to exercise its creativity. Let's dare to try something new. Or, if it isn't entirely new (many people have tried many things over the ages) let's at least brush off something that has gathered dust but shows promise for this new era. We don't need to throw out the standard models - they still appeal to many. We just need to create more options for people who want to follow Jesus but who can't imagine themselves in the stereotypical church service. In the photo, below, we don't need another blue door in the same building. We need another building and perhaps new ways to enter it.