The formula of a successful church

Watch this video and give me your honest reactions. '
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"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Here are mine.

I'm afraid that the deconstruction in the video is true. We have the most important opportunity in the world every Sunday. I pray that we don't waste it being consumer driven rather than gospel driven. It is also a gut check to make sure we don't follow routine and trendiness rather than the triune God in our celebrations.

How does The Bridge rate in regards to simply following this formula?

I would of said it was more true of us in year 1 and 2. Now, we plod through scripture making the Gospel the centerpiece of all that we do. The gospel is elevated as the rock star. All of our elements proclaim the gospel and challenge people to move not consume.

We definitely aren't as trendy as we once were, but we do get to spend at least six months in 1 Corinthians soon! :-) We have made it a focused effort for scripture to be elevated to a place of prominence over any of our teachers.

Now, I do believe that there are still abuses in non-contemporary or non-relevant churches.

On the other end of the spectrum, you still have churches stuck in different eras. Often instead of following the Triune God, they would rather follow the good old days. You can find abuses on both sides of the fence.

This video could be shot with hymns, special singing, and old fashioned preaching with three piece suits and still pull out the same reaction in me.

What questions does this video force us to ask?

1. Who are we pleasing? God or man?
2. Who are we following? Our own plans and strategy, or the living and triune God?
3. Are we comfortable and set it something that worked once? Or are we being led by the spirit in faith?
4. What are we growing? Consumers or Gospel-Driven people?
5. What are we imaging? Radical disciples of Jesus? Or man-made systems and strategies?
6. Have we over-contextualized? Have we under-contextualized?
7. Is Jesus the hero of our church? The hero of our leadership? The hero of our celebrations?
   

These are the things I think about all of the time. These are the reactions I had to the video.

If you want to see a video that I believe is in contrast to this one, CLICK HERE.