I drove past the big billboard next to a large church on a
freeway each week for 7 months and it bugged me every time. It said, “If You’re
Not Growing Where You’re Going, Try Us.” I think churches should advertise, but
I think it should be targeted. This sign is targeted, but it’s targeted toward
people who are already church members. It seems to me we should be targeting
the unchurched. Perhaps, this church is located in an area where everyone goes
to church and their only opportunity to grow is to pick off disaffected members
of other churches, but I seriously doubt that. Aside from the fact that it
seems less than honorable to intentionally try to attract church people who are
not satisfied with the church they attend, chances are that any one you get
that way will, after a brief honeymoon, be dissatisfied with your church too. (And
probably become a pain in the neck or even lower.)
Yet we hear that sentence all the time. “I’m just not being
fed.” The question I always wanted to ask, and now that I am older, do ask from
time to time is, “Why not? Why aren’t you being fed”?
Sometimes the answer is, “The pastor’s sermons are boring.”
That might be true, but rather than leaving, this person should pray for his
pastor and support any efforts he makes to improve.
Sometimes the answer is, “The pastor’s sermons are too
simple.” Maybe his sermons are simple, but it may be his sermons are simple to
you because they are targeted at new believers. Perhaps you find them simple
because you need more challenging stuff. In that case, instead of complaining
about simple sermons, you should pray for the people he hopes the sermons will
reach, and ask him for guidance for ways you can go deeper. He would probably
love to give you some direction.
Other times, the reason the person isn’t being fed is, “The
music is not to my taste,” or “too loud”, or “for another generation”, “I don’t
like all the tech stuff”, or simply, “I don’t know the songs.” Again, look at
whom the church is trying to target. You might say, “Well, if I’m not part of
the target, then I guess they don’t need me.” That is exactly wrong! The church
needs you to be on the team, to be part of the effort to reach people who don’t
know Christ. All of these criticisms imply that the church is supposed to
revolve around you. It’s not! It exists to glorify God. We glorify Him by
obeying Him, and He has told us how to do that: reach out to those who don’t
know Him with His message of love, hope and salvation; to grow up to be like
Him in our actions and attitudes; to grow together in love and fellowship; and
to lift up those in need without expecting anything in return. Newsflash! The church
does not exist for its members; it exists to bring the Gospel to others.
Members of the church are supposed to grow up to take their places in helping
make that happen.
Thom Rainer estimates that “we only reach one person for
Christ each year for every 85 church members in the United States.” It’s time
for all of us to be too busy to complain. Churches don’t need to compete for members.
A church that seeks to grow because Christians transfer to it from other
churches is not building the Kingdom of God. There are enough unchurched people
in America to fill all our churches several times. Our competition is Satan,
not the church down the block. Let us point our efforts at him.
