#2 – Protect the Message.

I love creativity.  I love art.  I love music.  I love videos, and I love special elements to jazz up a message (sermon).  This may be a little controversial, but here is the truth: The delivery of the message through a relevant exposition of scripture is the most important part of the weekend. No element is as important as that message.

No matter how long it took to plan.
No matter how many hours it took to render.
No matter how many volunteers it took to pull it off.
No matter how cool, great, awesome, relevant or creative it is…

it is not worth compromising the integrity of the message.

So here is a question we ask about everything we do on a weekend.

Does it help or hinder the speaker?

This comes from a belief that the primary purpose of our services are for people to respond to God.  This means the purpose of the message is to prepare, plow, and sometimes pummell the heart into readiness for that response. So if it does not help the speaker do this, then why would we do it? Because we ask this, we do a lot less stuff, but we think we set up the teaching of God’s word well.  And when that is done, worship will happen and creativity will flourish.

Our job is not to prove that we could make it on American Idol if we only tried – it is to present Jesus as God.

See you tomorrow for Part Three.