DOES THE CHURCH HAVE SOMETHING TO
DOES THE CHURCH HAVE SOMETHING TO
SAY?
Colossians 4:5
A cynical church leader once said, "Our church is looking for a great
year. That year is 1961. If it ever comes back, we're ready." His reason
for saying this was that 1961 was a "golden age" in church attendance.
Church attendance was at an all-time high that year. It was considered
the right thing to do--the patriotic thing to do--for the family to wake up on
Sunday morning, pile into the station wagon, and attend church together.
Even parents who didn't attend church were urged to send their children.
J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, urged American parents, "Send your
children to Sunday School so they won't end up in reform school!" (Of
course, based on what we know about Hoover now, this statement loses
some of its impact. But remember, in the fifties and sixties he was still a
cultural icon and had significant influence.)
In the twenty five years since that "golden age", church attendance has
been on the decline. Right now it is at an all-time low in this country. This
is surprising, since there is every indication that interest in spiritual things
is at an all-time high. There are 78 million unchurched Americans today.
That means about 33% of the American people don't go to church at
all--yet more than 87% of the American people say they believe in prayer,
and more than 50% pray on a daily basis. These numbers tell us that
there are millions and millions of people in this country who are interested
in knowing God, but they just don't go to church.
Why don't they? Well, as one well known pastor said, "People don't go to
church because they've been to church." That statement may seem
harsh, but apparently it is true. The overwhelming majority of people in
this country have been to church enough to develop an opinion about it,
and the opinion most often isn't flattering.
As we move toward the 21st century, we're finding fewer and fewer people
consider church attendance a priority in their life. Several mainline
denominations have lost millions of members in the last two decades.
The United Methodist Church has been losing members at the rate of
1,000 per week since 1968. Of course, it's not just the Methodists--the
Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians are losing members also. In
fact, 53,000 people who are in church today will make a decision to never
come back again. Why? Well, according to numerous surveys, the three
reasons people don't go to church, or quit going to church, are:
1. The services are boring.
2. The sermons are irrelevant.
3. The people are unfriendly.
It appears that there are millions of people in American who want to have
a relationship with God, but when they go to church the preacher doesn't
preach the gospel and the people don't act like Christians, so they
decided not to go back. One Generation Xer said it like this, "It's not that
our generation doesn't believe in God. We just don't believe in the
church." We live in a generation that believes the church has nothing to
say to the world. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. We
do have something to say, though we must admit that we haven't always
been faithful to say it. What is our message? Jesus Christ can give you
life to the fullest. (John 10:10) That's our message. There are many
elements of that message that we must make clear: repentance, faith,
salvation, holiness, good works, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and on
and on--but the Christian message can be summarized in the words of
Jesus, "I came to give life -- life in all its fullness." (John 10:10 NCV)
Instead of proclaiming this wonderful message of hope to the world, the
world by and large perceives Christians (and the church) as being
judgmental and holier-than-thou. As a result, many non-believers don't
feel welcome at church. One preacher made this statement, "We've been
judging the world and talking to ourselves, when we should be judging
ourselves and talking to the world!"
How can we do that? How can we speak to the world? How can we make
our church a "user-friendly" church that reaches people for Jesus Christ?
There are three things that I am going to recommend that we do in order
to give this church more impact in our community--three priorities we
should adopt in order to be the church God has called us to be. First of
all...
1. We must design uplifting services that help people
connect with Christ.
This is rather obvious isn't it? Isn't this what all churches are trying to
do--help people connect with Christ? But we must ask ourselves how
effective are we at doing it.
Earlier, when I said that people don't come to church because the
services are boring, I wasn't stating my own opinion. This is the opinion of
the unchurched. A Gallop poll revealed that Americans said the most
boring place to be is church. The comedian Gallagher once said,
"Growing up, church was the weekly reminder that there is something in
life worse than school." There is no need for people to have that
impression. God is not boring, and worshipping Him isn't boring, and
being in His presence isn't boring. If people find our services boring it's not
God's fault--it's our fault. It is our responsibility to communicate the truth
of the gospel to the world.
If a person goes to Venezuela to be a missionary, but refuses to learn
Spanish, he won't win people to Christ. Many churches make the same
mistake right in their own hometown. We are well aware of the fact that
we are strangers in a strange land--we are foreigners and aliens and (as
the song goes) this world is not our home. So, in order to reach the world
with the good news of the gospel, we must speak the language they
speak, and express it in terms to which they can relate.
This is the litmus test of every aspect of every service and ministry of this
church: does it help us help people connect with Christ? Is our music
helping us reach people for Christ, and is there something we should do
to make it better? Is our order of worship awkward and dull, or does it flow
with the power of the Holy Spirit? Is there something we can do to
improve our order of worship? Do we place enough emphasis in each
service on prayer, on the Word, on fellowship? Is the preaching helping
people connect with Christ? (I'll say more about this in a minute.) We
need to take seriously our responsibility to help others connect with
Christ. This is what Paul referred to when he said,
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of
every opportunity. (Colossians 4:5)
A second priority we must adopt as a church has to do with the
preaching ministry, as well as the overall message that our church
presents to the world.
2. We must proclaim an uplifting message of hope.
The fact is that most people don't look forward to hearing a sermon.
Whenever you hear the word "sermon" or "preach" used in a context
outside of church, it's always negative. If someone talks too long or too
loud other people will say, "Don't preach me a sermon!"
I heard about a minister who was thrilled to have been invited to speak at
the local high school's Baccalaureate service--until he found out how he
had been chosen. Each member of the selection committee attended a
different church on a specific Sunday and timed the message with a
stopwatch. The preacher with the shortest sermon was invited!
Most people don't expect a message to be uplifting. For some reason,
there are even some people that think if a message isn't negative it's not
biblical. But that's just not true. You see, I've read the Bible, and I know
how it ends. God wins. Everything works out. This world is a terrible place
and there is so much wrong with it that at times it may seem unbearable.
Sin is destroying the fabric of society. That's the bad news. But we have
been called to preach the good news: Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners. (1 Timothy 1:15) We have been called to preach
the good news: If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will
forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John
1:9) We have been called to preach the good news: I came to give life
-- life in all its fullness. (John 10:10) There is no amount of bad news
that power of the gospel cannot overcome. Our message to the world is
not one of doom and gloom, but one of hope. God loves you and Jesus
wants to save you! That's good news.
Growing up, when I would hear hard-hitting hell-fire sermons on sin, I had
the impression that there were millions of people out in the world
committing sins and having a tremendous amount of fun in the process,
and what they needed to do was to stop having fun and start coming to
church. That was my distorted view of reality. When I became an adult I
discovered that there are, in fact, millions of people in the world who are
committing sins, but they're not having much fun--at least not in the
long-run. Their lives are falling apart. Their relationships are a mess.
They've become emotional wrecks. They're living proof of the biblical truth:
"The wages of sin death." We must proclaim the whole gospel to them.
We need to tell them that they can come out of their misery into
everlasting joy...out of their darkness into a marvelous light...because
even though "the wages of sin is death; the free gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23) There is no amount
of misery, or pain, or sin that the good news of the gospel cannot
overcome. Therefore, our message to the world is a message of hope.
In order to be the church God has called us to be, we must adopt a third
principle...
3. We must make the effort to connect individually with
people.
Surveys reveal that many people stop going to church because, they say,
the people are unfriendly. That's why Paul urges us...
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders, make the most of
every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace.
(Colossians 4:5-6)
When I was in my early twenties, I moved to a new city. Immediately I
began looking for a new church home. Being a "company man," I
attended the church of my denominational affiliation. The first church I
visited, no one spoke to me but an usher. The second church I visited, no
one spoke to me, period. The third church was only slightly different. On
my first Sunday, no one spoke to me, but that afternoon the Associate
Pastor came by and invited me back to church. I attended another service
there. No one spoke to me but later in the week the Minister to Young
Adults came by and invited me to a Young Adult function. I attended, and
even though I am reasonably outgoing, I had a difficult time making
friends with anyone. It was a pretty tight knit group and I didn't fit in. I
ended up sitting quietly by myself that evening. I had decided to give up
when the Choir Director dropped by my house one evening and asked me
to sing in the choir. I said I would. I attended choir practice three
Wednesdays in a row and sang in the church choir three Sundays in a
row. Still, I had not had any kind of substantive conversation with anyone,
beyond "My name is Steve." It finally dawned on me that the only people
who would talk to me were the ones who were being paid to do it! Here I
was: lonely, living in a new city, eager to make friends, and motivated to
find a church home, but each church I visited seemed too self-absorbed
to welcome outsiders. When I quit attending I never heard a word from the
Associate Pastor, the Minister to Young Adults, the Choir Director, or
anyone else--until the church contacted me two years later asking for a
contribution to their new building program!
It's sad to say it, but this scenario is repeated every week of the year. I
challenge this church to make a commitment that it will not happen here.
Let's be honest about how much influence you, as an individual have in
this church. When it comes to hiring staff members or hiring a new
preacher, you have little say. When it comes to the budget and how
money is spent, you have a small voice. When it comes to building
projects or areas of ministry, your vote is only one of many. When it
comes to the preaching, (and I'll say this with a smile) you don't get a
vote at all--that's between me and God. However, there is an area of this
church where you have tremendous influence--more than I will ever have.
You can single-handedly show the world that this is a friendly church.
Think of how my perception of those churches I visited years ago would
have changed if only one person had made the effort to connect.
By the way, here's how my search for a church home ended. I attended
yet another church. While I was in the parking lot, walking towards the
front door, an older gentleman fell in step with me and began a
conversation. He asked me if I was new. I said "Yes." When we got
inside, he introduced me to two other people, one of whom invited me to
sit with his family. I later learned the man in the parking lot was a solemn
and stern judge--not one to waste words. However, his simple effort made
the difference for me that day: I found a church home.
Conclusion
In order for us to be the church that God wants us to be, we must strive
to have dynamic, uplifting services. And I give you my word that I will do
my best to preach the Bible faithfully, and present the good news of the
gospel week by week. But the real key to our success as a church
requires more than just entertaining people for an hour. We must connect
with people and help them make a life changing connection with Christ.
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