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Is There Any Place for Entertainment in Church Services?

by Max Aplin
4/17/2024 / Church Life

There seems to be a trend these days for church services to be aimed in part at entertaining those who are present. Sermons often sound as though they have been crafted not just to teach but also to amuse, and singing praise sometimes gives the impression of being more about having a good time than worshipping the Lord.

When this happens, something has gone badly wrong. It is very important for every Christian to understand clearly that, as far as adults are concerned, being entertained is not what church services should be about. Rather, we meet together to worship God, teach, learn, pray, use our gifts and build relationships with fellow believers.

Not aiming to entertain doesn’t mean aiming not to entertain

Although entertainment should not be the aim, or even an aim, of worship services (apart from what is directed to children, as I will outline below), that doesn’t mean that church leaders should go out of their way to be unentertaining.

For example, there would obviously be no virtue in deliberately trying to make a sermon boring. It would also surely be a mistake to say that a pastor should never, ever make a joke when teaching. And if some amusing story will help make a spiritual point, by all means let it be included. Basically, a Christian teacher should set his sights on teaching his flock without concerning himself over whether what he is saying is entertaining or not.

If something entertaining happens to be relevant, then fine. But church leaders should not be deliberately going out of their way to try to entertain.

Visual aids in teaching are not entertainment

It is also important not to confuse entertainment with having visual aids during teaching. There are some Christians who object to anything that is put up electronically on a screen during a sermon, claiming that this is a form of entertainment.

This objection makes no sense. If you go to a lecture at a university, there will usually be a visual display to accompany the words that are spoken by the lecturer. Clearly, the aim in these lectures is to teach, not entertain. In any case, communication is apparently more effective if it is directed to the eye as well as to the ear. Besides, we would expect universities to know a thing or two about teaching methods, and there is no good reason to think that Christian teaching should use radically different methods from secular teaching.

Sometimes Christians will argue that we shouldn’t use visual aids in teaching today because Jesus didn’t use them in his teaching. However, there are two mistakes here.

Firstly, Jesus obviously didn’t have the electronic equipment that is available to us today, so it is wrong to draw simplistic conclusions about what he would have done if he had had access to the tech that now exists.

Secondly, if we look in the Bible we find that Jesus did actually quite often use visual aids. For example, on one occasion he taught his disciples about humility by washing their feet (John 13:2-15). At another time, again to teach humility, he had a child stand in the middle of those listening to him (Matt 18:1-5). Once when he was asked about taxation, he asked for a coin to use as a visual prop (Mark 12:13-17). He also used a withered fig tree to make a spiritual point (Mark 11:12-14). And the list could go on.

It should be clear enough anyway that visual aids are often helpful for those listening to a Christian teacher. For example, suppose a pastor is teaching about Paul’s and Barnabas’s missionary journey in Acts 13-14. Showing the congregation a map of where these men went can only help the listeners to understand the background and context of these chapters. This is hardly entertainment.

The importance of entertaining children in church services

So far, I have been thinking of entertainment as it relates to adults in church services. When it comes to children, however, things are very different. As far as kids are concerned, I would argue not only that it is OK to aim to entertain them in church services, but that it is essential to have an element of entertainment.

It is very important that Christian children want to come along to church services. If in his or her mind a child connects church with something that is boring or unpleasant, that child is being primed to rebel against the Christian faith when reaching adolescence.

Of course, there is no guarantee that kids who dislike church services will rebel against the faith when they are older. Equally, there is no guarantee that kids who like services will not rebel. But all other things being equal, it has to be more likely that children who dislike going to church services will rebel against Jesus and the Christian faith at a later point in their lives.

When, on a Sunday morning, parents tell their kids that it is time to go to a church service, it is important that they are eager to go. It is a big problem if the typical response is, ‘Oh no! Do I have to?’

This is not a minor issue. It is about how these children are learning to relate to Jesus and Christian things, whether positively or negatively.

Children typically have a very low boredom threshold and poor attention span compared to adults. So they need to be entertained in church services. Of course, they need to be taught as well, and that is even more important. But there has to be an element of entertainment to keep them interested.

I am writing this on a Monday, and just yesterday at our church’s morning service, the kids had a great time running round for a couple of minutes finding cut out shapes of fish, because they were going to learn about Jesus causing the miraculous catch of fish in John 21. This is not a distraction or a waste of time. It is helping these impressionable children to see church services in their minds and emotions as something that they like and are drawn to.

Just as a little side note on this topic, I would suggest that it is a really bad idea to use the label ‘Sunday School’ to refer to the teaching group that kids are part of on a Sunday. If kids hear the word ‘School’, they are likely to be put off, at least to a certain extent. Of course, this group is a school of a sort, but there is no need to call it that.

Summing up

Essentially, then, church services should not be aimed at entertaining the adults who are present but at worshipping God and teaching the flock. If a pastor’s teaching just happens to result in an element of entertainment, that is no problem. But if it doesn’t, that is also no problem.

With children, however, things are different. Of course, they need to be taught to worship and understand the Bible. But care has to be taken that they enjoy coming along to services. If they don’t, this may well be storing up problems for the future.