Worship and the world

More good stuff here, by a pastor friend. Sections quoted below...

"In the midst of a hostile, even persecuting pagan environment, the early Christian leaders made it difficult to join the church. The catechumenate was a three year long process, involving much prayer, fasting, instruction, memorization, and mortification of desire. The disorientation Protestants feel upon worshipping in a Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox church is a reflection of just how out of sync we are with the idea of the Church as a body of believers set apart and called out of the world. We are taught to grow the church by blurring the boundary between it and the world. The first Christians grew their churches by doing the exact opposite: by highlighting the differences between the new life and the old."

"You are told by "experts" to change: change the music, the worship, and the outreach. Stop catering to the old, and go after the young. Be hip, be cool, be casual, be entertaining, be happy, be whatever you have to be to get those people into your pews."

Good comment made on the post, too: "if the Spirit is alive-and-well among your people, and if they are truly welcoming of others (as sisters and brothers to whom they can minister, not just "fresh meet" or income sources), then you can reach new folks. AND there's a lot you can do to be user-friendly without abandoning or dumbing-down the tradition."