It’s so easy to become culturally irrelevant.  I don’t even need to try.  One day you’re doing some awesome worship music, playing Modest Mouse and serving bold coffee, and the next minute it sounds like polka music to the next generation of kids.  It happens so fast.

At Connexus Church, we do a weekly service programming meeting where we plan out our weekend services.  We have a reputation for being ‘edgy’ as a church.  That’s good in our books, because if you’re really trying to reach people who don’t go to church, using the culture to reach the culture can still be a very effective strategy. And using the culture (in music, messages, media and more) can help people engage what you’re saying and apply the message to life far more easily.

Recently it occurred to me that we really haven’t done much to specifically engage culture in the last month or two. We’ve done some songs right off the radio, but beyond that, not much.  That freaked me out.  How could we forget?  It’s such a big part of who we are and what we do.

So I took out my computer and wrote down seven question I want us to start asking regularly as a team:

1. In what ways have we engaged our culture in the last 30 days?
2. What’s current in our culture?
3. What’s everyone talking about?
4. What’s our target (in our case, a 30ish married couple with kids) talking about?  How would we know?
5. What’s funny?
6. What’s viral?
7. What’s enduring (not trendy) that people still pay attention to?

I think of these questions as a way to ensure that we don’t think we’re engaging the culture around us when, frankly, we’re not.  One hour of swirling around in these questions led to some great creative ideas for the coming months (which I probably shouldn’t let out of the bag).

If you’re in leadership, what do you do to stay current?  What do you think of the questions?  Got any better ones?

So it’s tempting as we head into the weekend to say things like "so stoked about Sunday" or "so pumped about our next (fill in the blank for the service or event here). 

But why are we stoked?

Are we excited:

• because we’re speaking?
• because we organized the event?
• because we’re trying to get or we have momentum?
• because we’re trying something new?
• because we did a killer job planning it?
• because we just like the things we create?

I know that’s a tad cynical, but honesty is a good policy.  Many of us who have led ministries or events have had some of those thoughts (or all of the above). Personally, I think I’ve been guilty of all of the above.  

There is one reason to be stoked about Sunday: because Jesus Christ is risen and interacting with people He loves.  

You can phrase it differently, or maybe even better.  But the bottom line is the same. He is the one who draws people to Himself. 

Now I’m still excited about a great band, some intriguing video, and a message that I hope inspires and helps people. There’s nothing wrong with that. 

But Jesus is the deal.  The only deal.  The only One worth doing this (or anything) for. 

The more I keep that front and centre, the more there’s actually something to be stoked about. 

So we rolled with our Christmas Eve services and I think our Service Programming team (the sweet team that creates our services) did a great job straddling the tension between giving people what they want and delivering what people need.  As last week’s post pointed out, Christmas is an especially tough service to plan.

So what did we do (many of you were asking)?

• We opened the service with Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll.  The band did a great job, and people hung in the tension of liking what they were hearing but realizing this really wasn’t Christmas music.
• We had a ‘producer’ interrupt the band two minutes in the song and tell them they couldn’t play it because people had come for Christmas.
• The band then regrouped, and starting playing Rock and Roll again, only this time subbing in Christmas lyrics.
• I got up, cut them off and told them they had to play real Christmas music (at one of the services, people started calling out for more Zeppelin)…welcomed everyone and launched into some Christmas tunes.
• Musically, we then did some rearranged Christmas carols (like Chris Tomlin’s version of Angels We Have Heard on High).  We brought out some dancers who did a couple of kid versions of some Christmas songs to actions, and closed the service with Robbie Seay Band’s Go Outside and O Holy Night.
• The message was simple and fairly short (20 minutes).  Everyone got an invitation that was handwritten by someone at Connexus.  It simply said “My name is _______ and I want you to know that you are invited to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ”.  My message was simply that Christmas is the greatest interruption in human history accompanied by the greatest invitation in human history.  We invited people to respond to the invitation.

What I loved about the service this year was how the opener surprised people, caught them off guard and got them engaged in the first few minutes.  It was a bridge for people with little church background, and in many ways, modeled the message.  We interrupted the song…God interrupted history… we handed out a personal invitation…so did God.  We hoped it would work, but as usual, you don’t know until it’s all happening live.  I loved the kids’ dance too because it helped the kids stay engaged and gave the younger kids music they loved.  Plus it helped families see that we sink some significant time and resources into families.

I was so thrilled with our community…we asked people to invite friends and family and they did.  Being a portable church is hard and when you can’t even meet where you normally meet for Christmas services, it makes it even more difficult for a crowd to find you Christmas eve.  But our Christmas eve attendance has doubled in the last two years and was up 50% from last year alone – all because people told their friends.  We’ll plan for over 1000 attenders next year.

So that was Christmas.  If you were at Connexus, what did you think?  If you weren’t, please share some thoughts or share what your church did.  We’re always learning and would love to hear.