Who is Church For?

I was listening to a couple of podcasts on my way to/from work. It was a slow traffic day so I had plenty of time to flick though my selection and play podcast roulette. Two of the messages I listened to asked the same question - "Who is your church for?"

Is our church for church people? By that I mean, is our Sunday morning service designed for those who go to church, understand church and need little instruction as to what to do when in church? Or is our church service designed for people who dont go to church? Are we set up as a welcoming place where people who do not normally come to church will feel right at home? Do we have simple things like clear signage pointing to the tea/coffee or the bathrooms? Do we lead people through our service and announce what is going to happen as each thing takes place? If we don't then I suggest that we do not do that because we expect everyone present to know what is going on and why we do those things. If we think like this then we have answered the question posed above - and the answer is that our church is for church people.

If we have purposely taken the time to explain what we are doing at each point in our service - worship, offering, message, announcements - then maybe we are designing our worship services for non-church folks.

Maybe we should begin to change things up a little to ensure that we are truly making non-church people comfortable at our services. If it is possible then maybe it would behoove us to investigate how we can do it better.