Question. The MFC working posture for Sunday service is “newcomer-friendly-ish” (per 2026-05-20 grilling). The -ish is doing real work — distinguishing this posture from full seeker-service while also distinguishing it from veteran-only-internal. What are the operational rules of the -ish?
Why it matters. Without operational rules, newcomer-friendly-ish is too vague to settle song picks, jargon decisions, or service-element framing. Two contrasting failure modes:
- Drift to full seeker (Profile A in which-visitor-profile-is-mfc-sunday-service-designed-for): hide all jargon, retire all Heritage, individual-emotional song picks, undermines worship-form coherence with UC theology.
- Drift to veterans-only-internal: insider language uncontextualized, Heritage that assumes prior catechesis, song picks alienating to anyone who walked in cold.
The -ish is the navigation between these two failure modes.
Current best guesses. Working rules (incomplete; this question exists to develop them further):
- Use UC jargon freely, but explain after. Don’t strip Heavenly Parent, True Parents, Blessing, Divine Principle from the service. Do briefly contextualize on first use. (“We call God ‘Heavenly Parent’ because…”, “Our founder, Rev. Moon, taught…“)
- Explanation must be relatable, not technical. Don’t define indemnity in DP-internal vocabulary; explain it as the relational/restorative concept it is.
- Theology stays full strength; only the entry door is widened. Do not water down what is being witnessed to. Do widen access to it for whoever arrives.
- Cold walk-ins are welcomed, but not the design target. Per which-visitor-profile-is-mfc-sunday-service-designed-for working answer, the design target is the tribal-relational guest (Profile B). Cold walk-ins receive the same service, not a different one.
- Heritage retention is selective, not eliminative. Heritage songs stay when contextualized; “Internal Use Only” and “Retire” judgments need fresh review under the B-primary commitment — they were calibrated to Profile A.
- Familiar Christian contemporary is allowed when theology aligns. This provides recognition-foothold for seekers without forming the corpus center of gravity (which is UC-native; see should-mfc-prioritize-composing-uc-native-songs-over-curating-christian-contemporary).
Source. Raised in 2026-05-20 worship-leader grilling session, in response to the user’s clarification: “not bolded jargon, but in between — shouldn’t be afraid to use it, explain a bit after, make it relatable.”