Dig in Deep

An interesting post from Dan Kimball about the end of Axis, the alternative worship gathering at Willow Creek Community Church (where the famous Rick Warren is the pastor). Kimball talked a good bit about Axis in one of his books, and has some interesting comments about it, that sort of reflect on some things I’ve been thinking about lately (emphases mine):

I am always mixed up when churches try to be “intergenerational” – but rely on the worship gathering to do that. It seems odd as all you are doing is sitting in a chair and watching something and singing together. I don’t see intergenerational relationships occurring that way. Relationships occur outside the time you sit in a chair and watch what happens on the stage and sing. And then the never ending not pleasing anyone if you try to get all ages together “stylistically” for worship blah blah blah so it causes frustration any way you may look at it.

While that last sentence was not why I posted his comment, does that last sentence sound familiar?

The key here, though, is relationships. Do what degree is a church relying upon their worship service to build relationships? When it comes to visitors, you’re left completely in the cold. We’ve visited four different churches in the past couple of months, and at a church service it’s always the same thing: you might manage to say hello to a couple of folks on the way in or out, but you’re not anywhere close to building a relationship. It’s a problem with the model.

Kimball suggests that we shouldn’t rely on the worship service to build intergenerational relationships. My question is, if the primary gathering time isn’t serving the basic function of providing space for people to minister to each other, then what is the point? Why are we trying to patch the worship service with additional times for relationship building, instead of simply fixing the problem in the first place?