Typically churches are 1.0, we thrive at telling people what to do. Teaching is usually the trump card we play to solve people’s problems. Got a problem in your marriage, parenting, finances, or career? Having a hard time following Jesus? The church’s answer? Come to this teaching series, take this class, go to this seminar. Content, content, and yes, more content. What if church was meant to be 2.0, a conversation? I think we get this intuitively but have a hard time breaking the habit of telling. 1.0 can be a nasty and difficult rut to get out of. Recently we did a “text series” at Sun Valley where we invited people to text in their questions and we had a real-time conversation about real questions that people were asking about life, the Bible, and following Jesus. Instead of simply sitting and listening, people were engaged and active participants in the service.

And by the way, we kept and categorized every question that was texted in, even if we couldn’t get to it live during the service. Sometimes churches are guilty of answering questions that people aren’t asking. We’ve found that this not only sets up great conversations but also provides the teaching team insight and content to consider for future teaching series. Here’s the video bumper that we built and used for the series, check it out!