Lots of that kind of thinking going on. We are here. We’ve been here for 75, 100, 100+ years. We have a well known Lutheran Christian Day School. We offer the divine service at 8 & 10:30AM every Sunday. They should come to us.
The trouble is that they are not looking. I once worked with a congregation that did an extensive community survey about their ministry. They were on a major six lane road in the community. Their Lutheran school had been in operation for over fifty years. But no one knew who they were. Yet when the survey said that it was the church with the fountain, many would say, O yeah, now I know. By the way, the fountain was in a popular local television program. The bottom line is that this landmark church was invisible to the thousands of cars that passed it every day.
I was once working with a traffic engineer when we were trying to sort out the issues of parent drop off for our Lutheran school. I asked him about putting up a road sign to help with traffic. He said the sign wouldn’t do any good because it would just become part of the scenery within six weeks. People would ignore it.
The point is that in the 1950’s at the high point of Christian worship in our society, many people would feel the tug of needing to be in church on Sundays. But we are over seventy years later. The data says that many parts of the country are in the single digits as a percentage of the population that is in any kind of religious gathering per week. People aren’t looking. They aren’t noticing the church. In fact many believe the negative things said about Christians and have no intention of being with those kind of people!
Furthermore, your programs and worship style aren’t getting their attention either. If they are not looking, they won’t find out. If they don’t trust the church or think they have anything for them, they likely won’t give it a try. So quit waiting. They aren’t coming.
So what do we do? When a person is sick and infirm, they can’t get to the table so we bring it to them. In the same way, our society is spiritually sick and infirm. They will not come to us, they are too weak. So we need to go to them. We need to bring them the bread of life Jesus Christ.
The early church cared for the sick and dying, even among those who hated them. This willingness to serve the people during a plague and die rather than recant powerfully demonstrated the love of Jesus and for Jesus.
So quit waiting and hoping that people will show up…to our services, our activities and our programs. They are too weak. Jesus came to us and sacrificed Himself for us. Now it’s our turn. Go to them. Sacrifice your own comfort and love them in the name of Jesus. It will shatter their false assumptions about Christians and will give them an insight as to the real Jesus who is Savior and Lord of all.
Rev. Scott Gress is believes in Growing People for Ministry by focussing on leadership, discipleship and teamwork. Contact Scott if you are interested in him working with you or your church. A free 30 minutes sample session is available to explore how you might work best together. The Coaching Leader Podcast is also available on iTunes and his YouTube page. You can contact Scott through email scottgress@me.com or his blog page scottgress.com or at 561-542-4472
Growing People for Ministry" Leadership + Discipleship + Teamwork
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