Tight Rope Walking

We have an annual men's get-a-way at our denominational church camp just south of Canton Ohio. It is nestled in 200 acres of trees with a nice pond and sleeping lodges. It also has a cool ropes course. I have attempted to navigate it several times with other brothers from my fellowship and have observed that the larger one is the more difficult it is to stay balanced on the ropes. I believe the same is true for churches. The larger the facility, budget, attendance and programming the more difficult it is to achieve homeostasis -"balance."

One area I find most difficult to balance is addressing the preferences of our attendees worship style and designing a service that will stimulate the target audience we wish to attract? How do we cater to the emotion of the regulars and address the psycho graphics (perceived emotional needs) of our mission field? How can we provide a positive emotional experience for both through our worship venue?

At times the two are vastly different. Our target audience "mission field" is unchurched contemporaries who have little interest or emotional connect with church tradition and style. Whereas our regular attendees feel disenfranchised because the venue does not align with their preferences, expectation or experience. What is a healthy church to do?

We teach in psychology that emotions follow thinking and behavior. The worst thing we can do is set our mission and values by emotion. Most of the time, the last thing we should do is act out the way we feel. Our hope is that regulars attendees of Willoughby Hills Friends Church will continually remember the mission of our church is to attract the lost for the sake of Christ when it comes to worship style, and will consistently put their emotion in check and find great joy in suffering for Christ by catering to the need/preferences of our mission field. At Willoughby Hills Friends we expect a maturity level that will "die to self and live for others," namely Christ.

What say you? Is this expectation to unreasonable to ask of our regular attendees? What thoughts do you have on how we can better balance the emotional needs/preferences of regular attendees and our targeted mission field? Thanks for stopping by!
-------
Adrian