Is Church a Waste of Time?
Have you ever found yourself being kindly (or not so kindly) rejected when you invited family and friends to church?
It was probably not because of you. More likely you were a victim of the person’s perception of church as a place, a building, a worship service, a community or a fellowship.
Most of us, when we hear the word “church” we think of a place or a building (“I’m going to church”), or a worship service (“Church starts at 11am”), or a community or fellowship (“I belong to this church”). I discussed this in my last blog (read: What comes to mind when you hear the word church?). Unfortunately, this same perception of church is a significant barrier for most people.
Take, for instance, the typical American. Life is busy. There are many choices. Actually, there are far more things to do than can be squeezed into a week. Into this mix comes a Christian friend who is nice enough to issue an invitation to come to “church” this Sunday at 11am. Unfortunately, the typical American perceives church as a place, a building, a worship service, a community, or as a fellowship. And this influences their response.
Think this through with me from an unchurched point of view.
Is church as a place or building attractive to the typical unchurched American? I suppose so if the facility were ultra-spectacular. Kind of like the medieval churches with amazing architecture in Europe. But then people who attend would be tourists — not disciples. In my experience, most unchurched Americans prefer to enjoy the outdoors or explore interesting downtowns than go to church.
What about church as a worship service?
Even with a powerful preacher, rocking music, and free donuts and coffee, would an unchurched person choose to go to church? Consider the options: sit for a couple of hours listening to some person talk about things in which you have no interest or go to the football game? Heck, even committed Christians choose the football game. Why would an unchurched person choose differently? More telling are vacationing Christians who rarely make attending a worship service a priority when they’re out of town. And they want their unchurched friends and family to value going to church? Right.
And church as a community or fellowship?
The unchurched American might be thinking, “You want me to join a group of backward-thinking, narrow-minded, judgmental people? And not only that, you want me to give them my money and let them ‘convert' me to become like one of them?” Yikes! Instead, most folks prefer to attend family gatherings or their kid’s soccer game rather than join a “church.”
So, yeah, the common perception of church is a significant barrier for people.
Yet the early church described in the book of Acts painted an entirely different picture.
During that time there were thousands of people pouring in. A positive reputation of the church spread out among the citizens. The entire city was transformed. Why? I believe the early church was not operating with the same perception of church as we do. They were not trying to establish or purchase or improve or remodel or upgrade or design a cool and hip place, building, worship service, community or fellowship. In truth, they were doing something very different. They were doing church as ekklesia. They were the church as Jesus intended.