Why don’t people just stay home and watch a worship service on TV? Perhaps because getting up on Sunday morning and driving to church feels very different from sitting in one’s bathrobe watching the tube.

Our service itself, though, is very traditional. We begin with an organ prelude, after which the worship leader goes to the microphone to get the service started. Since congregational singing is impossible, music is arranged for the beginning, middle, and end of every service. I read Scripture and offer a congregational prayer (preceded by written prayer requests the greeters bring forward). These range from traditional prayers for healing to prayers for people threatened with the loss of their home because of financial difficulties, those coping with substance abuse or depression, and those facing broken homes or experiencing physical or emotional abuse.

The center of each service is the sermon. The challenge of preaching to a worship community like this is to make sure that the messages are deep enough to enable regular attenders to grow in their faith but simple enough so that the first-time worshiper can understand it. While I don’t preach the same evangelistic sermon each Sunday, just using a different text, I do make sure that each message includes an invitation to people to accept Jesus as their personal Savior.