I absolutely love to sit with a group of people and talk about an upcoming message and brainstorm with them how we can help the message penetrate the hearts and minds of our students.  It is almost as if I get a rush listening to the ideas and thoughts that are being put on the board.  For me this is one of the most important parts of what we do for Sunday mornings.  Yet, I continue to see so many churches and programs not really making it happen.  So, I ask myself, Why?

Initially, I just simply think that they don’t care.  Many preachers believe that the only way that people will come to Jesus is through the preaching of the Word and that everything else is just fluff.  I wonder if they have ever looked at what impacts them in life.  I am certain that if you were to remove the screen from the TV and just hear the words that they would no longer be interested.  This is exactly what we have done we we have not programmed a service and simply have some music and hear someone preach.  We have taken away the visual.  In the life of students this is a major mistake.

I want to encourage you to take some time and think through the following acronym that was published by Leonard Sweet in his book, Postmodern Pilgrim.

E.P.I.C.

Experiential – In what ways are you creating an experience in your services?

Participatory – Are those in attendance actually a part of what is going on or are they simply sitting there disengaged?

Image – Are the slides on the screen or the images in the bulletin representative of what you are communicating or are they random?

Connective -  In what ways are you encouraging community and conversation between the people in your audience?

I believe that if we want to create services that are worth what God has laid on our hearts then we have to be EPIC in our approach.  Programming can easliy be overlooked, but when you start really paying attention to everything that is being said or done in a service then you will a change and the impact of the message has the chance to go deeper.

Be Sociable, Share!

•