Wednesday, August 15, 2007
I have been mulling over an idea in my head for a few weeks now, and to be honest I haven't come to a complete conclusion on this subject. My question is, has the church become too user friendly?
A big part of why this question came to the forefront of my mind recently, was due to a speaker we had in our church a few weeks ago. He is the pastor of a church plant that meets on Friday nights. The reason they meet Friday nights is due to the fact that many people work Sunday's and cannot make church, so they wanted to make it more convenient and accessible for people to attend church.
Now, something in that entire process stuck out in my head. I do believe the church should be reaching out to those around them. I think that if your church is not growing, you really need to ask some hard questions as to how you are doing things. We have been commanded by God to reach out to those around us, and spread the good news of the Bible. However, I feel like perhaps we've tried to make our churches so user friendly that we have watered down our convictions or tried to do away with having convictions on controversial topics in order to not offend. We've tried to make the church service something for non-churched people to feel comfortable in. We've brought in entertainment, shaken up the order of service, cracked more jokes, and focused on engaging people.
I'm not in any way condemning the church for having services on Friday evening. I don't believe that the day of the week is the most important, I think it's just important to be setting aside a day for God, and living out each day for God. We shouldn't be trying to fit God into our lives where we have space, but rather be living our lives with Christ at the center, and everything else rotating around that.
At the end of the day, Christianity is not convenient. It's not meant to be easy. In fact, there are numerous Bible verses that talk about being persecuted for your faith, or having to sacrifice things that you hold on to in order to serve God better. It kind of seems like we might be giving out conflicting messages when we try to bring church to the world's level, instead of teaching people that God is a holy God that demands respect.
I'm not saying by this that I think we should walk around with long serious faces, and never have fun. I truly believe there is great joy in knowing that your future is secure in God. I think that there is also a balance when it comes to church, you want people to be able to understand what is being preached, and be able to apply it to their lives. Like always there are two sides to the road, and churches must be careful not to fall into either side but rather balance along the center.
A big part of why this question came to the forefront of my mind recently, was due to a speaker we had in our church a few weeks ago. He is the pastor of a church plant that meets on Friday nights. The reason they meet Friday nights is due to the fact that many people work Sunday's and cannot make church, so they wanted to make it more convenient and accessible for people to attend church.
Now, something in that entire process stuck out in my head. I do believe the church should be reaching out to those around them. I think that if your church is not growing, you really need to ask some hard questions as to how you are doing things. We have been commanded by God to reach out to those around us, and spread the good news of the Bible. However, I feel like perhaps we've tried to make our churches so user friendly that we have watered down our convictions or tried to do away with having convictions on controversial topics in order to not offend. We've tried to make the church service something for non-churched people to feel comfortable in. We've brought in entertainment, shaken up the order of service, cracked more jokes, and focused on engaging people.
I'm not in any way condemning the church for having services on Friday evening. I don't believe that the day of the week is the most important, I think it's just important to be setting aside a day for God, and living out each day for God. We shouldn't be trying to fit God into our lives where we have space, but rather be living our lives with Christ at the center, and everything else rotating around that.
At the end of the day, Christianity is not convenient. It's not meant to be easy. In fact, there are numerous Bible verses that talk about being persecuted for your faith, or having to sacrifice things that you hold on to in order to serve God better. It kind of seems like we might be giving out conflicting messages when we try to bring church to the world's level, instead of teaching people that God is a holy God that demands respect.
I'm not saying by this that I think we should walk around with long serious faces, and never have fun. I truly believe there is great joy in knowing that your future is secure in God. I think that there is also a balance when it comes to church, you want people to be able to understand what is being preached, and be able to apply it to their lives. Like always there are two sides to the road, and churches must be careful not to fall into either side but rather balance along the center.
Labels: Controversial Issues