They’re doing it to meet a need they may not even fully realize yet. When someone decides disrupt their normal routine to go to church for the first time – or for the first time in a long time – it’s not because they don’t have other entertainment options. Oh, who are we kidding? Even megachurches can’t compete with the quality of entertainment people can access 24/7 from the phone in their pocket.īut we can be great at worship, community and generosity. The church was never meant to be a religious stage show for passive audience members.Īnd, let’s face it, even if it was, those of us who lead and worship in small churches know that don’t have the resources to put on as good a show as our big church counterparts. People Want to Worship, Connect and Serve If you’re new to our church, our hope is that you’ll see that following Jesus is about worship, discipleship and service, right from the start. Instead of doing come-and-be-entertained Big Day events, when we do community service events, we encourage non-attenders to work alongside us. But our church services put the emphasis on worshiping Jesus, teaching the Bible and discipling believers, not entertaining passive consumers. And when they come, we greet them, help them and explain things to them. We don’t entice non-believers to come to a church service designed them. So we’re working to change the way we ask people to interact with the church. Years ago, I realized that this ‘sit and watch’ issue was a problem for our church. Change ‘Sit and Watch’ To ‘Come and Participate’
This may seem harsh to some of us, but the upside of this approach is that when following Jesus got really hard, no one could say they hadn’t been warned. He didn’t soften his tone to try to win them back. This was so repulsive that many left him. In one famous incident, Jesus told the growing crowds they were required to eat his body and drink his blood if they wanted to follow him. One man was told he had to sell everything and give it to the poor. Some were told to leave their nets behind (their ony source of income). When people came to Jesus, they weren’t given false up-front promises that they could sit passively while Jesus wiped their troubles away – all wrapped up in a delightful just-under-an-hour stage show. It creates angry, confused and resentful church-shoppers – and quitters. This audience-to-discipleship bait-and-switch doesn’t create passionate, worshipful, loving disciples. It would be like going to Starbucks until you achieved Gold Card status only to get handed a green apron. You’re here to do the work of ministry.Īnd we wonder why people have become so skeptical about the church. But it’s bait-and-switch to tell church-goers that we’re here to serve them, only to teach them a few months later at the membership class that – surprise! – you’re not supposed to be a consumer. I’m a huge proponent of making our church services a welcoming environment for everyone – especially for first-time attenders and seekers.
#SIT BACK AND RELAX AND ENJOY OUR FREE#
The church does not exist to serve passive consumers, but to equip and activate disciples.īut, like the monkey stubbornly clinging to the apple inside the cage, we’ll never free ourselves to be biblically active communities for life-transformation until church leaders let go of our please-the-consumer mindset. We’re a community for life transformation. We’re not supposed to be in the customer service business. The church does not exist to serve passive consumers, but to equip and activate disciples.
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