A few months back I spent some time with my friend Steve Argue who works at Mars Hill Church. As a part of our conversation about how to connect students with the overall church we talked about what sort of metaphor would best describe the worship experience at our churches. At the core of this conversation was the Sticky Faith Research being done by the Fuller Youth Institute. Steve pointed out that it was highly likely that early churches operated much more like a "Family Room" than they did a "Lecture Hall." This thought struck me as something I wanted to unpack more so I invite you to think about this with me.
"Family Rooms" are busy places with lots of activity, they are generally multi-generational, they are places of interaction and dialogue and even arguments. Think about what your family room looked like on Christmas morning. Probably not a completely somber place where a present was opened and then the person who received it would simply begin to play with it alone while everyone watched. Family rooms are meant to be chaotic and messy and full of life. They are supposed to be places of engagement and of growth. Generally the teaching style in a family room involves narrative story telling and the sense of a "shared" history and experience. The set up of a family room in general aims at creating a communal space without any seat being more important than others.
"Lecture Halls" are much different. They are more of a "one way" type of room. They are set up in a way that highlights the front and the person who is sharing knowledge. There is often little or no interaction. The knowledge travels from the front to the rest of the class. In general the experience can be very sterile and even dull. It's not alway inviting and doesn't offer much opportunity for engagement. In general these spaces are not personalized and can actually look pretty sterile and boring.
So I guess my question is pretty simple. As we continue to think about the future of the Church and how to engage young people in our worship services what should we be doing? I raise this idea not as someone who has the answers figured out but as one who wonders if we are missing something.
Most of our churches are promoting the "Lecture Hall" worship service. Might we need to rethink what we are doing and create something that looks more like a "Family Room?"
