Hands-On Church Services
No, this is not an article on the oft misunderstood practice of the “laying on of hands”, so if that is what you were hoping for, I am sorry to disappoint, but don’t worry that article is almost certainly on its way! Instead, this article describes a novel approach for how to add more creative and engaging teaching methods to traditional church services. To make them more “hands-on”. To begin, let’s start with a question:
“What’s the main point of attending a modern protestant church service?”
Truly, truly, there are many reasons, including: fulfilling the command to gather with other believers, to worship God, and the sacrament of communion. The question posed though is: “What is the main reason?” I contend that the focal point both in terms of structure and duration of modern protestant services is almost always the sermon. Typically, this element is at least 40-50% of the service, of which musical worship can almost be viewed as preparation for this service element. (Note: I did not say that this should be the main focus of a church service, simply that generally speaking it is. Ideas on alternatives to sermon-focused Sundays are discussed in another article called Sermonless Sundays, which I encourage you to checkout as well!)
So why so much emphasis on sermons? Well, in the process of making disciples of Jesus, we are called to teach people to both know and obey everything He has commanded us (see Matthew 28:16-20). Sermons, therefore, play an integral part of that process, as they did in the life of Jesus. That said, if you look at the life of Jesus, his teaching methods were far from one-dimensional. Although numerous in scope and method, for purposes of this discussion, we will break down these teaching methods into three rough categories. These categories are: sermons, discussions, and demonstration/practice. Concerning these methods, the church today has the sermon dialed in! In fact, if you include online content, we are swimming in vast oceans of this type of instruction! Many churches also have Small Group or Bible Study type ministries, which if facilitated well, can foster a great amount of learning through dialogue and discussion. People are typically given an opportunity in these environments to ask questions, share thoughts, and really wrestle with concepts and their application. Although much more could be done with regards to this form of teaching, it is definitely present.
The third type of teaching, and likewise learning, is sadly far from present, if not nonexistent, in the church today. This type of learning takes place through having someone provide basic instruction along with demonstration of the concept, which is immediately followed by an opportunity for the “student” to put the new concept into practice and receive feedback on their performance. One way to think about this is how you were taught basic construction projects in shop class, with the teacher first explaining and then demonstrating how to use a tool, followed by you trying it yourself and receiving feedback (hopefully keeping all your fingers intact…). Simply put, this is “learning by doing”! This thought is not really new or novel, the real question though is: How would you incorporate this teaching method into our existing ministry structures? The rest of this article is devoted to some outside the box thoughts on how to incorporate this teaching method of Jesus into our existing services, events, and as part of Small Group or Bible Study related activities!
Putting into Practice.
On one ministry “tour of duty” I was given the opportunity to try some of these hands-on service concepts with a senior high youth group, at a large church. We met on Wednesday nights and had both a service component of worship and teaching, followed by small group discussion time. Concerning those ministry experiments I would say it was one of the more overwhelmingly successful proof of concepts I have ever tried. What now follows is a brief description of those experiments and their outcomes for your consideration, as you look to plan your own future ministry activities!
Bible Study Methods Experiment – The issue being tackled in this service was simple: We have spent years telling students they should read and study the Bible, but, in most cases, have never shown them how! This clearly doesn’t apply only to students, but is especially true of them in my experience. Pastors often go to school for years, learning appropriate methods and techniques for studying the Scriptures, including: Testament Surveys, Inductive Study Methods, Literary Genres, Systematic Theology, and even Original Languages! At the same time we ask 13-year-olds to read and unpack Pauline Epistles like Romans or Prophets like Isiah… without the slightest bit of training.
During these experimental services we had a shortened “sermon” on Inductive Bible Study Methods and Biblical Literary Genres. We then asked the students to get into their small groups and essentially exegete the same short passage of Scripture using the discussed method(s). It also “happened” that this was the same passage the Senior Pastor was teaching on two weeks later during Sunday morning. It was one of the few nights students stayed discussing in groups well past the end of service. I also had numerous students come up to me truly overjoyed saying, “I have always been told and really wanted to study my Bible, but this was the first time I was actually shown how!” And yes, I got a little misty eyed… (Note: You could do something like this on a Sunday morning where people either individually or with people next to them take some time to apply the method with the pastor ending the sermon by going through how he exegeted the passage.)
Prayer Experiment – Unfortunately, prayer can often be reduced to asking for some pressing personal need, but in actuality its expressions and subject matter is immeasurably more rich and complex. Over the years I have encountered many students (and adults) who desired to pray more, but either did’t really know how to or quickly ran out of things to pray for. We regularly encourage people to pray more, but without ever teaching on or better yet, demonstrating and practicing the infinite expressions of the gift that is prayer!
During this experimental service we didn’t have a traditional sermon, but instead had some short opening thoughts on prayer, followed by 5-minute teachings on various “types of prayer”. These short teachings included subjects like: Corporate Prayer, Personal Prayer, Prayer of Thanksgiving, Prayer of Surrender, Prayer of Intercession, Prayer of Repentance, Prayer for Leaders, Prayer for Laborers, Etc. Immediately following each short devotional or teaching, we spent 5-10 minutes actually praying the type of prayer that was just described. During these times of prayer we had the worship team play some great reflective songs in the background that related to the form of prayer in question (think praise songs for prayers of thanksgiving). The best way I can describe that service is that there was an awesome spirit of unity. Unity both with the Lord and with each other, as people’s understanding of prayer was expanded greatly!
Worship Experiment – Many people think of worship as a purely musical thing and even in that context don’t truly understand the various expressions or sometimes even why we do it at all. We ask people to sing songs about God and in some cases raise their hands with eyes closed, sometimes without them ever understanding how this is connected to the Biblical concept of worship.
During this experimental service, we had a short sermon on the Biblical concept of what worship is at a heart level. We then explored some of the different expressions of worship found within Scripture and how that relates to what we commonly do during times of musical worship. Specifically, things like raising hands, shouts of praise, contemplation and reflection, to name a few. We then had an extended time of musical worship with a variety of songs where people got to express themselves in these different ways, this time with understanding! Concerning this night I heard that several of our youth leaders were contacted by parents sharing how impactful the evening had been on their student. Enough said.
Community Experiment – Sometimes people forget when attending church services that ministry isn’t just done by church leadership, but that everyone is an active and necessary participant to the health of the congregation. That God is at work in and through the different members, each with different gifts and callings, for the benefit of all. That you should come together with other believers not just looking to receive something, but also to steward and share what you have been given.
The goal of this service was to get as many students “in the act” as possible so that they recognize themselves as an important part of a vibrant faith community. The way this worked in practice was that the students were in charge of every aspect of the evening, including giving announcements, a student led worship team, two short devotional teachings, and a few inspirational testimonies, just for good measure! During our small group time that night we also made sure that each person was prayed for and encouraged individually by the rest of the group. This got many of the students thinking and dreaming about things that they wanted to incorporate into the next “community night”!
Outreach Experiment – The goal of this hands-on service was to actually reach out to those that don’t know Jesus, instead of just talking about it. Evangelism is often one of the most challenging, uncomfortable, and for many, scary things we are asked to do in the faith. In my experience, no matter how stirring and inspirational the sermon is on the importance of personal evangelism, it often doesn’t translate well into action.
During this experimental youth service we had a shortened sermon by one of our pastors on evangelism, coupled with teaching on the art of writing a great letter, much in the tradition of the Apostles. We then had students sit at round tables instead of rows and spend the rest of the evening writing a letter to someone they care about, sharing what they appreciate about them and also what Jesus has done in their life. We then placed the letters in envelopes, added stamps, and took care of mailing them out for the students. It should also be noted that this was done shortly before Christmas, during which time cards like this are more culturally appropriate, but theoretically you could do it anytime. By the end of the night every student had spent time reflecting on and writing meaningful words to someone they cared about, expressing love and testifying to the work of Jesus in their life!
Future Considerations.
The positive feedback I received from these services relative to their traditional counterparts was in some cases overwhelming! Not one of them was a flop, far from it. The truth is that there are many within the church who truly desire to live for Jesus, they just struggle to figure out how to put the principles they learn during a sermon into concrete and effective action in their lives. These experiments seemed to show that helping people take a first step through demonstration and practice, in a safe environment, was a much appreciated breath of fresh air! Unfortunately, that youth pastor role was only an interim position, so I was unable to test out all of my ideas, but here are some other possibilities of things I have considered:
The Gospel – Have a short message on some different methods and approaches to sharing the Gospel. Then pair up with someone around you and practice sharing the Gospel message. If possible, there would be some actual roleplay with this to make it more interesting and realistic. You could also repeat this exercise again in the future, but targeted towards different types of people with different life experiences and world views. The teaching could focus on ways to more clearly present the Gospel to someone with each unique background.
Forgiveness – Living in unforgiveness towards others can be quite self-destructive and, if we are honest, the height of hypocrisy: To readily and fully receive the forgiveness of all your sins as a gift from God while holding a smaller burden over the head of someone else. What if we were to preach a short sermon on forgiving others, flowing from the immense forgiveness we have freely received, and spend the rest of the time searching our heart and forgiving those that have wronged us? Additionally, asking for forgiveness from those we have wronged. This could include actually sending messages during service for setting up meetings with those we need to forgive or even reconciling with people present in the service!
Serving – As believers, we are all gifted and commanded to serve. In fact, serving can be one of the simplest and most genuine ways to display Christ’s love to people. As part of a hands-on services, the pastor could give a short devotion on the call for believers to serve others. Then go do it. You could start by doing a service related project in the church, but if you could go outside of the church it would likely be even more impactful. By going out into the community and serving someone who needs help, you will be demonstrating Christ-like love and proclaiming the Love of God in a tangible way. This will be an experience that will likely stay with your congregants and encourage them to serve others as Jesus did!
Others – There are numerous other subjects and activities to practice that you are encouraged to come up with on your own. This includes things related to generosity, stewardship, worship as a lifestyle, and participating in edifying debate, to name a few. As always, we encourage you to think outside the box, take some risks, and see God work in profound ways!
In Summary.
I think a great way to summarize the heart of this discussion is with one of my favorite quotes, although I fail to remember where it originally came from: We are educated far beyond our obedience! Put another way, “Why continue to educate people more when they haven’t even implemented 10% of what they currently know?” For example, “Why spend time detailing the importance of the priesthood of Melchizedek, when most of the congregation likely doesn’t have a consistent or vibrant prayer life?” Concerning this, I believe there are two main reasons why people don’t obey, even though educated in a faith concept, although there are clearly more... The first is that they simply don’t want to, which is fundamentally a heart issue. Fixing this issue requires a literal act of God and although there are things we can do to facilitate heart change, that is for a different discussion. The second main reason and the one pertinent to this discussion, is that people don’t have a “working knowledge” of the concept. Through countless sermons, they have come to understand intellectually the principles or concepts in question, but can’t readily translate them into practice.
The good news is that we can remedy this lack of practical knowledge by regularly and creatively adding hands-on services to ministry programming. Instead of learning a brand new concept, would it not be better to spend the time we have together focused on demonstrating and practicing the fundamentals of the faith? (Especially knowing that when people leave church, they often move on from the sermon they just heard without ever really applying it.) Should we not focus on helping people obtain a working knowledge of faith fundamentals before moving on to deeper subject matter? Don’t just take my word on this though, as the author of Hebrews expresses a similar sentiment in 5:12-6:3:
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.