Today I left the sunday service at a church I visited, and thought to myself that if I didn't have the commitment to be at a church every sunday, and was running purely on instinct, I would have regretted getting out of bed.
The element of commitment was developed in me from being raised in a church and making a firm decision for Christ at age 17. However, those we are trying to reach, the 'unchurched' do not have this kind of commitment attitude towards attending church. All they have is the gut reaction of 'do I want to go or not' or 'did I enjoy that or not'. It is very unlikely that a 1st time non-christian visitor will leave thinking 'I wasn't entertained as such, but at least I got to hear something spiritual'. For some of us, that can be all a Sunday morning church service may have to offer - the feeling of having done something 'spiritual' and thereby fulfilled our weekly duty to God. No actual enjoyment.
When it comes down to just the instinctual 'human nature' side of me, it takes quite a lot to get me enthusiastic about being at a church.
The element of commitment was developed in me from being raised in a church and making a firm decision for Christ at age 17. However, those we are trying to reach, the 'unchurched' do not have this kind of commitment attitude towards attending church. All they have is the gut reaction of 'do I want to go or not' or 'did I enjoy that or not'. It is very unlikely that a 1st time non-christian visitor will leave thinking 'I wasn't entertained as such, but at least I got to hear something spiritual'. For some of us, that can be all a Sunday morning church service may have to offer - the feeling of having done something 'spiritual' and thereby fulfilled our weekly duty to God. No actual enjoyment.
It takes years to develop a serious commitment to attending church based on the bibles teaching (Heb 10:25 - let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing) and in the meantime we need something as an anchor to keep us attending. For me it was playing guitar in the church band every week. For others it can be a hot guy or girl in their youth group that keeps them coming. Whichever it is, most people need an anchor which acts as motivation to attend church, and as they attend hopefully they grow in knowledge of Christ to the point of making the decision to attend out of commitment to Him, not out of any ulterior attraction.
So what do we do when we want to reach those who aren't musicians who want to play in the worship band? What do we do to provide an anchor for those seekers who we might be able to see saved?
Well, what attracts people out in the big wide world? Why do people go to events, clubs, or groups in their spare time? Very often because it is fun. It is entertaining. People often don't come to church because they think it's boring. People sometimes attend church and find that it actually is pretty boring.
I've heard it said quite often that people shouldn't be coming to church to be entertained, but in my opinion there's nothing wrong with coming to church and being entertained. It doesn't have to be one or the other. When we mature in our faith we begin to attend out of commitment to Christ, but in the meantime we have to have things which are an attraction to those who are seeking, or are just babies in their faith, or we will find ourselves only bringing in those who are already saved.
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