OK… continuation of my list and the aggravation of my hands and wrist:
4.) (cont’d) My generation wants the incense, the Eucharistic Adoration, the orthodox Christian teachings, since we’re all taught that truth is relative and we want something ABSOLUTE. When I polled people last spring for a paper, the answer people gave was that they either wanted the traditional stuff or they wanted a blend of traditional and contemporary.
5.) Entertainment is not necessarily evangelism and the point of church is not what we *get* out of it. Walt Kallstad of the Community Church of Joy coined the term “entertainment evangelism” and in one of his books talked about how we need to keep people there by making it interesting. Ummm… sorry but the point of church is not entertainment — it’s worship. The point of worship is giving praise *TO* God, not getting *FROM* church. Granted, I know it’s a pain to worship when you are bored out of your minds by the sermon and the worship; but that’s something that is fixable by perhaps livening up the music (i.e. tempo and dynamics) and getting people to actually *discuss* the sermon with the pastor.
6.) You can’t just expect a contemporary service to draw people. You need to provide the fellowship opportunities. If you’re trying to draw 20somethings (and there is actually a need for that), create a Sunday School class for them.