[Dr. Eckleburg]

Why can't that hour be on Saturday night or Wednesday night or Saturday morning?

Maybe every other Tuesday, after the car wash and before "24" reruns.

Why does it have to be on Sunday morning at a time when unbelievers (seekers) normally expect church to be and are most likely to come?

Do the two services have to be so different? Can't a "seeker" get something from a good sermon and Scriptural worship?

Does everything have to be deconstructed to the lowest common denominator?

[George W. Bush]

Does everything have to be deconstructed to the lowest common denominator?

Looks like the milk-sippers must be catered to. Ignore the needs of meat-eaters. They aren't important.

SBC and others have an ongoing and escalating debate on this topic. They seem to be reaching the conclusion that if you don't build up your members in strong doctrine and thorough teaching, you will lose them. What merit to a worship service that only offers fundamentals? Why should someone want to join such a church? Why support something that recycles the same seeker-level material every few years and never progresses to full doctrine? If people can only get full doctrine (meat) at their bible study, then why go to church at all if they know they're only going to hear an inane variant of some simplistic sermon over and over? Maybe for variety, you can mix in a screening of Passions of the Christ (no warnings about the unscriptural portions though) or maybe discussion of the latest (My) Left Behind movie/merchandise offering?

If your primary worship service caters only to the milk-sippers, how can you expect a sound membership? I see this in my local church. You wouldn't believe the kind of mischief it leads to. I would observe that the soundest members will be driven out by those who don't want to be governed by scripture or study doctrine. Not talking about Calvinism/Arminianism here, I mean any doctrine. Then they start the usual refrains about how they're opposed to teaching doctrine because it's divisive. Of course, what you then have are a group of people who hold entirely different ideas about scripture and Christian life, namely members of a church who are not and have never been brethren in any sense of the word. And the first major crisis that arises, they'll be fighting like cats and dogs.

The idea that the Sunday morning worship should be no more than a seeker-friendly evangelical outreach is fundamentally unsound. If you only offer milk at your primary service, your flock will be weak and childlike. And they won't be able to resist false and divisive doctrine.

Got milk?

[wmfights]

"Do the two services have to be so different? Can't a "seeker" get something from a good sermon and Scriptural worship?"
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I think a real "seeker" wants to hear the TRUTH unvarnished, it's the lookers who get uncomfortable.

[wmfights]

"Do the two services have to be so different? Can't a "seeker" get something from a good sermon and Scriptural worship?"
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In the suburbs where I live, I believe Willow Creek has a special service for members only on Saturday nights.