Over the years, my thoughts and ideas about church have changed greatly. I like to attribute the change to maturity rather than cynicism, but we’ll see. My early beliefs and practices were rooted in the premise “more people = more better.” This dictated that one of the primary purposes of (my) church functions was to attract as large a crowd as possible. So, I worked to attract as many people (students in this case) as possible to whatever events I could afford and execute. This lead to lots and lots of different types of events, lots of time spent and lots of burn out.
Following the same line of thinking, a primary purpose of the event, be it a worship service, concert or ski trip, was to be sure the content of the event was good (or cool) enough to entice people to come to the next event. Bonus points if they brought people with them next time. With the goal being to bring in as many people as possible I was then confronted with the reality that people don’t like to be offended or challenged. Thus the content of any event was always shaped to be mild enough to make people return despite the “Christian stuff” required to qualify as a church event.
This is a slight exaggeration for the purpose of illustration, but it is not too far from reality. My original premise restated into thinking-language: We do this event to attract people to our church with food/music/fun/rockin’ concert-style worship service with lights and fog and indoor fireworks, etc. If we put on a good production, people will listen to our message and maybe give the Gospel a chance–if we put on a good enough show.
Life experience, further learning and study have shown that premise to be grossly underdeveloped, inadequate and basically wrong. Follow this syllogism.
Major Premise: John 6:44 and many other places in the New Testament make it clear that people ONLY come to God because He calls them.
Minor Premise: Today, God communicates to people through His word by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion: It is not our productions but our God who brings people to the Gospel through His word.
If this argument is true, then the answer to the question is apparent.
The truth is that God calls people on His own and in His time. His timing is not changed due to my action nor is His calling thwarted due to my inaction. My original premise was flawed because I believed my events brought people to church so that God could then draw them to Himself. To do that I stopped at no end to attract people. I spared no expense because I believed I should do whatever I could to attract just one more person so they could hear God’s call. If I produced my events well enough, more people would attend and could then come to know Christ. I do believe that excellence in production is highly important. In fact, excellence in anything we do is important, but how arrogant of me to think that God’s call is dependent upon my ability to attract people rather than being the responsibility of the Holy Spirit to attract people through God’s Word.
What needs to go now is anything that inhibits the church from affecting the salvation of people (believers and unbelievers) through the preaching of God’s Word. Where should you start? What that takes up the most time but uses the least amount of Scripture. Put a bulls-eye on that one.
Over the years, my thoughts and ideas about church have changed greatly. I like to attribute the change to maturity rather than cynicism, but we’ll see. My early beliefs and practices were rooted in the premise “more people = more better.” This dictated that one of the primary purposes of (my) church functions was to attract as large a crowd as possible. So, I worked to attract as many people (students in this case) as possible to whatever events I could afford and execute. This lead to lots and lots of different types of events, lots of time spent and lots of burn out.
Following the same line of thinking, a primary purpose of the event, be it a worship service, concert or ski trip, was to be sure the content of the event was good (or cool) enough to entice people to come to the next event. Bonus points if they brought people with them next time. With the goal being to bring in as many people as possible I was then confronted with the reality that people don’t like to be offended or challenged. Thus the content of any event was always shaped to be mild enough to make people return despite the “Christian stuff” required to qualify as a church event.
This is a slight exaggeration for the purpose of illustration, but it is not too far from reality. My original premise restated into thinking-language: We do this event to attract people to our church with food/music/fun/rockin’ concert-style worship service with lights and fog and indoor fireworks, etc. If we put on a good production, people will listen to our message and maybe give the Gospel a chance–if we put on a good enough show.
Life experience, further learning and study have shown that premise to be grossly underdeveloped, inadequate and basically wrong. Follow this syllogism.
- Major Premise: John 6:44 and many other places in the New Testament make it clear that people ONLY come to God because He calls them.
- Minor Premise: Today, God communicates to people through His word by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
- Conclusion: It is not our productions but our God who brings people to the Gospel through His word.
If this argument is true, then the answer to the question is apparent.
The truth is that God calls people on His own and in His time. His timing is not changed due to my action nor is His calling thwarted due to my inaction. My original premise was flawed because I believed my events brought people to church so that God could then draw them to Himself. To do that I stopped at no end to attract people. I spared no expense because I believed I should do whatever I could to attract just one more person so they could hear God’s call. If I produced my events well enough, more people would attend and could then come to know Christ. I do believe that excellence in production is highly important. In fact, excellence in anything we do is important, but how arrogant of me to think that God’s call is dependent upon my ability to attract people rather than being the responsibility of the Holy Spirit to attract people through God’s Word.
What needs to go now is anything that inhibits the church from affecting the salvation of people (believers and unbelievers) through the preaching of God’s Word. Where should you start? With whatever takes up the most time but uses the least amount of Scripture. Put a bulls-eye on that one.
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All…a very interesting website and something that falls right in line with the website posted above. My partner, Dr. Tom Nebela and I would very much like your feedback on what we’ve put up. Please let us know your thoughts?
r,
Charles