Is your church service compelling? After all, our church services are competing with every other opportunity people have to invest their time-reading the Sunday paper, sipping Starbucks coffee, golfing, sleeping in. We can shout the claims of Christ all we want, but if we don’t compel people to come in and listen, our message is fruitless.
2. A Strategic Theme – It’s not enough to just teach on a relevant topic–you have to connect the topic with a theme that’s already captured people’s attention. If the message or series theme relates to a conversation that people are already having outside the church, it’s much easier to invite your friends. Package several messages around a culturally “hot topic.”
3. The Biblical Truth – We can talk about topics relevant to people’s lives, compel them to come in, and experience a service. But if we don’t offer biblical truth, people will not experience faith and forgiveness, and they won’t experience the life change that happens when people redirect their focus and trust to the person of Jesus Christ. Romans 10:17 reminds us that “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (NIV)
So here’s the real test of whether your church is implementing these three components for a compelling service.
Follow an exercise we do periodically at Granger. Sit down with your service bulletins from the last six months. For each service or series, answer these questions:
· Did we address a relevant topic?
· Did we connect the topic to a theme that was hot in the culture?
· Did we offer biblical truth?
Then track the attendance for each service. As you carefully review each one, don’t be surprised if you see a pattern emerge. When all three components are present in a service, more people will be compelled to come into your church and hear the Gospel message. And when you begin to see lives changed, you’ll know your services are compelling for all the right reasons.
