There seems to be a trend these days for church services to be aimed in part at entertaining those who are present. Sermons often sound as though they have been crafted not just to teach but also to amuse, and singing praise sometimes gives the impression of being more about having a good time than worshipping the Lord.
When this happens,
something has gone badly wrong. It is very important for every Christian to
understand clearly that, as far as adults are concerned, being entertained is
not what church services should be about. Rather, we meet together to worship
God, teach, learn, pray, use our gifts and build relationships with fellow
believers.
Not aiming to entertain
doesn’t mean aiming not to entertain
Although
entertainment should not be the aim, or even an aim, of worship services
(apart from what is directed to children, as I will outline below), that
doesn’t mean that church leaders should go out of their way to be unentertaining.
For example, there
would obviously be no virtue in deliberately trying to make a sermon boring. It
would also surely be a mistake to say that a pastor should never, ever make a
joke when teaching. And if some amusing story will help make a spiritual point,
by all means let it be included. Basically, a Christian teacher should set his
sights on teaching his flock without concerning himself over whether what he is
saying is entertaining or not.
If something
entertaining happens to be relevant, then fine. But church leaders should not
be deliberately going out of their way to try to entertain.
Visual aids in
teaching are not entertainment
It is also
important not to confuse entertainment with having visual aids during teaching.
There are some Christians who object to anything that is put up electronically
on a screen during a sermon, claiming that this is a form of entertainment.
This objection makes
no sense. If you go to a lecture at a university, there will usually be a
visual display to accompany the words that are spoken by the lecturer. Clearly,
the aim in these lectures is to teach, not entertain. In any case,
communication is apparently more effective if it is directed to the eye as well
as to the ear. Besides, we would expect universities to know a thing or two
about teaching methods, and there is no good reason to think that Christian
teaching should use radically different methods from secular teaching.
Sometimes
Christians will argue that we shouldn’t use visual aids in teaching today because
Jesus didn’t use them in his teaching. However, there are two mistakes here.
Firstly, Jesus
obviously didn’t have the electronic equipment that is available to us today,
so it is wrong to draw simplistic conclusions about what he would have done if
he had had access to the tech that now exists.
Secondly, if we
look in the Bible we find that Jesus did actually quite often use visual aids. For
example, on one occasion he taught his disciples about humility by washing
their feet (John 13:2-15). At another time, again to teach humility, he had a
child stand in the middle of those listening to him (Matt 18:1-5). Once when he
was asked about taxation, he asked for a coin to use as a visual prop (Mark
12:13-17). He also used a withered fig tree to make a spiritual point (Mark
11:12-14). And the list could go on.
It should be clear
enough anyway that visual aids are often helpful for those listening to a
Christian teacher. For example, suppose a pastor is teaching about Paul’s and
Barnabas’s missionary journey in Acts 13-14. Showing the congregation a map of
where these men went can only help the listeners to understand the background
and context of these chapters. This is hardly entertainment.
The importance of
entertaining children in church services
So far, I have been
thinking of entertainment as it relates to adults in church services. When it
comes to children, however, things are very different. As far as kids are
concerned, I would argue not only that it is OK to aim to entertain them in
church services, but that it is essential to have an element of entertainment.
It is very
important that Christian children want to come along to church services. If in
his or her mind a child connects church with something that is boring or
unpleasant, that child is being primed to rebel against the Christian faith
when reaching adolescence.
Of course, there is
no guarantee that kids who dislike church services will rebel against the faith
when they are older. Equally, there is no guarantee that kids who like services
will not rebel. But all other things being equal, it has to be more
likely that children who dislike going to church services will rebel against
Jesus and the Christian faith at a later point in their lives.
When, on a Sunday
morning, parents tell their kids that it is time to go to a church service, it
is important that they are eager to go. It is a big problem if the typical
response is, ‘Oh no! Do I have to?’
This is not a minor
issue. It is about how these children are learning to relate to Jesus and
Christian things, whether positively or negatively.
Children typically have
a very low boredom threshold and poor attention span compared to adults. So
they need to be entertained in church services. Of course, they need to be
taught as well, and that is even more important. But there has to be an element
of entertainment to keep them interested.
I am writing this
on a Monday, and just yesterday at our church’s morning service, the kids had a
great time running round for a couple of minutes finding cut out shapes of
fish, because they were going to learn about Jesus causing the miraculous catch
of fish in John 21. This is not a distraction or a waste of time. It is helping
these impressionable children to see church services in their minds and
emotions as something that they like and are drawn to.
Just as a little
side note on this topic, I would suggest that it is a really bad idea to use
the label ‘Sunday School’ to refer to the teaching group that kids are part of
on a Sunday. If kids hear the word ‘School’, they are likely to be put off, at
least to a certain extent. Of course, this group is a school of a sort,
but there is no need to call it that.
Summing up
Essentially, then,
church services should not be aimed at entertaining the adults who are present
but at worshipping God and teaching the flock. If a pastor’s teaching just
happens to result in an element of entertainment, that is no problem. But if it
doesn’t, that is also no problem.
