What's the difference between rap music and opera? The answer is that rap is people talking when they should be singing and opera is people singing when they should be talking. This article is about neither rap nor opera, nor is it about singing in church. Following last time's discussion about the syllabus, here are some questions to probe.
Many churches run a system of a Sunday morning Bible class and a midweek social event to invite friends to. All this is fine until you consider the motives. Then it becomes like the rap/opera joke. Sunday is Bible teaching, but not reaching out. Friday nights are evangelistic but without a Bible base.
What's the aim
The question is what is the aim of each session? Any answers landing outside the realms of discipleship and evangelism need closer examination. Is it the best use of our resources just to keep the Christian young people in the church occupied in a safe environment? Is the youth club merely acting as 'babysitting' on Friday night? Do we run Sunday morning groups because the children make too much noise if they are left in church? Sometimes asking these questions upsets the status quo. 'This is the way we've always done it' might be the reasoning behind a programme without gospel aims, discipleship and evangelism.
