Canadian blogger and pastor Jordon Cooper skipped church yesterday prompting an entry about the Sunday morning competition churches face. For some folks Sunday is the only day off, and getting dressed up (or feeling like you should) to attend an unfamiliar church is just too intimidating. Cooper also noted how church services are geared towards those who work regular 9-to-5, Monday-Friday jobs, making it difficult for those who have to work on Sundays.
His post also prompted some criticism for skipping church, and Cooper responded by talking about the obstacles involved in checking out a church. For him the church next door was a possibility, but feeling like he’d have to get dressed up, his inability to find any info about the services, and his negative experience with the pastor all conspired to keep him from going.
When a pastor realizes how hard it is to go to church, we’ve got some work to do.
More:
- Learn more about how to welcome church visitors with this massive collection of resources and blog posts.
- Walking into a church for the first time can be scary. Check out Unwelcome: 50 Ways Churches Drive Away First-Time Visitors by Jonathan Malm for practical ideas and perspective on first-time guests.
Bene Diction Blogs On
April 4, 2005
Skipping church
Jordon Cooper took some heat for being human. He hasn’t been feeling well and missed church on Sunday. Preditably, he got flamed. So he posted part deux. Like what Church Marketing Sucks had to say about it. Jordon you are gonna burn with the rest of u…
Anthony
April 5, 2005
I think that one of the GREATEST obstacles that many churches face is not the WANT TO of the Pastor or the Pastoral staff to do more — it is that they simply do not have the enough people willing to step up and commit. It goes back to the old 80/20 rule — 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work. It does not matter if it is a small country church, or a mega-church with 10s of thousands of members. Jesus is the head of the church, but the head cannot go where the rest of the body is not willing to go. Now, there may not be a simple solution to this — for instance, WHY are so many people NOT willing to step up and serve? Is it because they are enslaved by the old thinking that it is the paid staff’s job to do all of the work? Is it because they feel overburdened by the pace of their personal lives? Is it because they have not been taught by their leaders that they SHOULD serve? We know that we are NOT saved BY works, but the Word is clear that we are saved TO work and that we are rewarded for our works. I am reminded of what happened in the Old Testament when Moses put out the call for people to donate for the construction of the original tabernacle. There was SO MUCH given that the Priests had to go to Moses and have him tell the people to STOP bringing in offerings and donations. Wouldn’t it be GREAT if our Pastors today had that same “problem” when it came to people giving money and giving of their time to advance the Kingdom of God.
Joel
April 6, 2005
mmmm… I wonder…
If the presence of God would be in that place, would people leave ????
Maybe we are so consumed, so busy with doing church, we forget the reason of church : meeting God .. not doing things…
What if we would quit the church, and just seek God…then He would come, and people would come..
YoursbecauseHis
April 14, 2005
When I think of the church as the Body of Christ with Christ as Head, two analogies of dysfunctional bodies come to mind…
One is that of “running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off.” (Old Southern expression, I think.) Even when the head is not connected, the habitual reflex actions of the body continue, sometimes at a frantic pace but with no direction or purpose and progressing only towards an inevitable state of death. Seen churches like that? Jesus is no longer head (Lord) in any real way, but the Body is still frantically participating with purposeless traditional programs.
The second sad analogy would be that of a stroke victim or some other human malady that traps a vibrant mind inside a non-responsive body. There is frustration when the mind has purpose but the body in uncooperative. I wonder if Jesus is frustrated with His Body?