Services Interpreted for the Spiritually-Inexperienced
A few days ago I spoke in a casual contemporary service that reflected the gravitational pull of Willow Creek, only a half an hour away.
I’ve preached in this kind of environment before, but never with my twentysomething niece, “Gina” sitting on the front row right beside my wife, Janet. Gina’s church background is a functional zero so we were surprised when she accepted our invitation to attend.
We spent the Tuesday following the service celebrating Gina’s birthday in a trendy, midtown restaurant complete with feng shui decorating, gay couples holding hands, and vegan entrees. At one point she asked me what I did at my job, seminary administrators not being too prominent in her circle of friends.
But my profession wasn’t the only thing alien to her. After the Sunday service, Janet told me that Gina had been quietly asking her questions throughout the event. She wanted to know where the worship band played the rest of the week, why the building didn’t look more like a church (it was multi-purpose), what are the song lyrics doing on the screen, why the auditorium had chairs rather than pews, etc.
Gina liked the coffee in the lobby and the music, found the technology striking (I think she had expected none), but was disappointed that the church offered nothing to eat for breakfast. After the sermon Gina expressed appreciation for my talk because it sounded “normal” (I think as opposed to being stylized) and it gave her “a lot to think about.”
During the service, Janet entertained each of Gina’s observations and answered every question. Gina used her as an interpreter just as a hearing-impaired person might use the services of a sign language specialist.
Explaining the service for Gina reminded me of a Sunday Jan and I worshipped with a congregation in Copenhagen. The Danes supplied us with unreliable infrared-powered headsets through which we could hear (intermittently) the voice of an English language interpreter. Picking up every third word, I wondered if this might be how the spiritually inexperienced feel in a worship service, struggling to arrange fragments into something recognizable. Gina confirmed my hunch.
Janet’s experience suggests that even the most spiritually inexperienced person can appreciate a fairly mainstream, or even traditional, service if someone cares enough to serve as a spiritual/cultural interpreter. The seeker sensitive approach attempts to accomplish this end by modeling Sunday morning as much on the surrounding culture as possible without compromising the message (e.g., worship music that sounds like U2). I don’t think this is enough any more. Our Sunday experience was well-executed, sincere, and meaningful. But Gina still didn’t understand. She needed an interpreter, an individual who could help her make sense of things.
For Discussion:
1. Should congregations make spiritual “interpreters” available to newcomers during services just as they offer assisted hearing, sign language, or language translation devices?
2. Is it possible that the alienation from the Church of most spiritually inexperienced people is due more to a simple lack of “interpreters” than to the failure of our models or paradigms?
[This blog originally appeared in Monday Morning Insights]
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I like your thinking. I tend to think as Michael Frost – church is generally going to remain set aside for the “churched” no matter how “friendly” we try to make it. Therefore, I think we are obligated as “seekers of the sought” (great phrase by the way), to serve as interpreters to those not familiar with churchianity. In fact, this was perfectly demonstrated at our experimental community this past Sunday when a young gal brought a couple young unchurched single moms (fringe of society types who we work tirelessly to reach) and we had worship stations set up for advent. She went around the stations with them, talking to them, answering questions, helping them read the Bible passages…it was SPECTACULAR. I was very proud of her and of them.
I think the coming together of the church is of the utmost importance to spiritual growth of Christians at all levels. I think it is a mistake to think that the same coming together that edifies and equips the saints will have the same effect on the “sought” (I like that term better than the pre-saved.
The mistake we make is when we expect people to just come in and fit in. Yes. They need interpreters. It should be the same person that has built a relationship with them on the outside of the four walls of the sanctuary. Odds are that they came at the invitation of a friend or a relative anyway.
Janet and I invite people to church all the time. When they do finally come, we do not consider our job complete. We want them to understand what is going on, to feel a part and to build relationships with others in the church. Even now that our work is on the road rather than pastoring, we find ourselves staying in touch with and helping the people we are reaching to get into a church. Sometimes that means a little interpretation via phone calls or email. Sometimes it means explaining that not all of what takes place with church people is what God is doing.
R. Duane Gryder
Motorcycle Chaplain
AG US Missions
www.deserthighway.org
“I wondered if this might be how the spiritually inexperienced feel in a worship service, struggling to arrange fragments into something recognizable.”
I think so, and one of the key problems to gaining traction in the area of enlisting the body of Christ to serve as “spiritual interpreters” is the lack of immigrants into the dominant church culture. Whether we admit it freely or not, we often view the uninitiated as an annoyance at least, a threat at worst, to our worship routine.
Great thoughts! Obviously, the friend of the new person would be the best one to serve as the interpretor, but what about those who just walk in? Surprisingly, we have quite a few people who just come on their own. Is there a way to have “interpretors” available? I think this is going to become an area of increasing concern as more and more people come to our churches who have zero to limited church background.