How do we make liturgy fun for outsiders?

This question was raised on twitter a while back, around the discussion of the christening/baptism of Prince George. It raises a number of questions for me, wider than the original question.

There are some who argue that liturgy is meaningless to those outside the church, and so we should do away with it completely. I don't agree with this - you might be surprised to hear this, but I don't believe this is the answer. Oh and those churches which claim to be free from liturgy - this just means that you don't have a formal, written liturgy, not that you don't have one at all. The question of liturgy is far wider than this.

So what do we mean by liturgy? And can we make it "fun" for outsiders? More, should we?

Liturgy is, I think, simply "the way we do things here" - this means that it is not necessarily or only written. It can be very obtuse to outsiders - in fact, it can be very obtuse in insiders too, but if you are used to it, you tend to accept it. That is not necessarily a problem, because all groups have certain ways of doing things, and it is difficult if you don't know the rules and expectations of a group. I work in a range of different places, and in each one, there is a slightly different dress code. I have to learn this and fit in to work there successfully. I have to learn the terminology of their particular business to fit in. I have to learn each organisations liturgy.

So can we and should we make church liturgy "fun" for outsiders? A lot of the work I do has been about working on public web sites for clients. In these, the company needs to present what it is selling to those outside the business, and talk in the language of the customers, not using the jargon of the business. This does not mean that the business jargon is bad, just that it is not easily accessible to those outside, and customers should not have to understand it to buy from the site and the company.

The style and approach varies for different companies. Some need to be "fun", some need to be serious, but all - critically - need to be talking to and relating to the clients, not the company. This is a hard sell to many organisations, believe me, because they want to represent their company on the web site, and relate it to the organisation, not the clients.

The problems with the church are that the main church services are, to a large extent, the "public" presentation of the organisation, they are the web site made flesh, if you want. And so they should be represented in a way that is accessible to those outside, not to those inside.

Others might disagree with this perspective - the church, they will argue, is the community of believers, and so the liturgy should be appropriate for those inside, and not for those outside.

In honesty, which of these you follow probably indicate who you think the church is for.

But should it be "fun", even if it is for those outside? Is that the right image? I am not convinced that this is the primary aim. Accessible, yes - and so using whatever terms and phrases people want to use (the original comment was about confusion between "Christening" and "Baptism"), whatever they fell happy using. But it should also reflect the truth that Christianity is not just a fun game. At the same time, I think that Christianity does not suffer from the problem of seeming far too flippant. So making the image, the presentation of the faith, fun is unlikely to go too far.

The truth is, the church is far too often fussing about the trivial and minutiae of language and ideas, and far less often getting on with enjoying life. If by making liturgy more "fun" we mean taking our heads out of our behinds, I am all for it.