The mission of the church is to bring people to Christ (it is not the tri-fold mission of proclaim the gospel, perfect the saints and redeem the dead). Yet many members feel that the focus on Christ is missing in our weekly worship. So, what’s the best way to bring Christ back to the center of our Sundays?
This trend is probably to some extent backlash against the histo-centric year we are having with D&C as focus of GD class and JS manual in RS. There may also be some desire to reaffirm our status as Christians when other religions often stigmatize us as not being Christian. So, what would it look like if Christ were the center of our worship? Here are some possibilities of how lessons & talks might be more Christ-centric:
- the atonement of Christ; his role and divinity
- how to apply Christ’s teachings: how to be followers of Christ
- stories from the life of Christ, events that happened to him in his lifetime
- the parables of Jesus – sharing and elaborating on these messages
- how to develop a personal relationship with Jesus; understanding Jesus’ nature as a personal friend
Have I missed any major angle above? It occurs to me that these topics might get stale if covered for 3 hours every week. Also, if speakers only focused on 1 or 2 of the 5, it would get very repetitive. I also notice that as I look over the list, I don’t find them equally appealing. Personally, I would prefer them in this order: 2, 4, 3, 5, 1. What order would you prefer? I think the order in which they are usually focused at church is the order I listed them above: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Do you agree?
Do you feel that Church should be more Christ-centered or that it is sufficiently Christ-centered? Which of the above focuses would be of the most interest to you? Are there some ways of focusing on Christ that you don’t find appealing? How do you think our focus (especially by topic) compares to other Christian churches? Discuss.
Wheat & Tares 