Church's Purpose
Stephen Whitney
I Timothy 3:14-15
In January 2012 the Lutheran Church of All Saints in Stockholm Sweden added a Friday night "techno mass' accompanied by ultraviolet lights where the young dance in the isles to the beat
of the rock band up on the stage.
This Friday night mass is the church's latest attempt to attract young people in a country where attendance at services has been dwindling for decades. Over the past 10 years, membership in Sweden's Lutheran church has fallen 13% and attendance at regular Sunday services plunged 50% to 4.6 million in 2011.
Priest Olle Idestrom organizes the mass and says that the feedback has been mainly positive. "There is already a hip hop mass, there is a rock mass and a jazz mass," the 28 year old priest told the Associated Press. "But it is mainly club music that we listen to and that we like dancing to, so it felt like a natural choice."
Olle said that he had to turn people away at the first techno mass
in April 2011. He said, "The service started with organ music and choir singing but soon broke into powerful techno beats to loud approving claps, shouts and cheers. People jumped up and danced at their seats while disco lights swirled over the ornamented wooden ceilings."
Ella Schwarz, who is 15 and attended the mass said, "It was superfun, it was really kicking, I didn't think it would be this
good before I came. The church isn't really my kind of thing,
but after this it seems like it is great."
This new kind of church service in trying to reach young people should cause us to ask: What it the purpose of the church?
1. Is it to get people to attend services so the church continues?
2. Is it to make people feel excited about attending church?
3. Is it to bridge the difference between the culture and Christ?
4. Is it to help people connect with God on their level?
The word church means those who have bee called out. It is a group of people who have responded t ...
Stephen Whitney
I Timothy 3:14-15
In January 2012 the Lutheran Church of All Saints in Stockholm Sweden added a Friday night "techno mass' accompanied by ultraviolet lights where the young dance in the isles to the beat
of the rock band up on the stage.
This Friday night mass is the church's latest attempt to attract young people in a country where attendance at services has been dwindling for decades. Over the past 10 years, membership in Sweden's Lutheran church has fallen 13% and attendance at regular Sunday services plunged 50% to 4.6 million in 2011.
Priest Olle Idestrom organizes the mass and says that the feedback has been mainly positive. "There is already a hip hop mass, there is a rock mass and a jazz mass," the 28 year old priest told the Associated Press. "But it is mainly club music that we listen to and that we like dancing to, so it felt like a natural choice."
Olle said that he had to turn people away at the first techno mass
in April 2011. He said, "The service started with organ music and choir singing but soon broke into powerful techno beats to loud approving claps, shouts and cheers. People jumped up and danced at their seats while disco lights swirled over the ornamented wooden ceilings."
Ella Schwarz, who is 15 and attended the mass said, "It was superfun, it was really kicking, I didn't think it would be this
good before I came. The church isn't really my kind of thing,
but after this it seems like it is great."
This new kind of church service in trying to reach young people should cause us to ask: What it the purpose of the church?
1. Is it to get people to attend services so the church continues?
2. Is it to make people feel excited about attending church?
3. Is it to bridge the difference between the culture and Christ?
4. Is it to help people connect with God on their level?
The word church means those who have bee called out. It is a group of people who have responded t ...
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