Psalm 122:1 says, "I rejoiced with those who said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord." Is that your experience?
In our culture, very few people would say, "I was SO EXCITED when they asked me to go to church!" Some say that, but most don't. To make a difference, many churches--including ours--try HARD to make church a positive, even fun experience. We serve coffee, we have food, we tell jokes & dress casually, we try to have upbeat music and videos, we offer activities for the kids...all of it to improve the quality and attractiveness of "church."
But at the end of the day, do people really "rejoice?"
I had a conversation with someone recently who was upset because we no longer have an 8:30 service (we're now at 9:30). The reason? Was it to have more time later in the day to serve the community? Nope. Was it to spend more time in fellowship with other Chistians? Guess again! Was it so that this person could take classes such as our 101-501 material? Bzzzzzzzzzzt--wrogo, bucko. I know--it MUST have been to have more time in prayer on the Lord's Day. Right? Nada, uh-uh, nope--guess again!
What was the reason?
I can't tell you. I WILL say, that it was his favorite leasure activity and, have church an hour later meant one less hour that day to have fun doing that activity. So what does that mean? It means that no matter how "fun" we make it, there's always something more fun to do. It could be sleeping, golfing, horseback riding, bungee jumping--something will ALWAYS be more fun than church.
How can we compete?
We can't, we won't and frankly, we shouldn't!
The truth is that if loving God and telling him so in song, prayer, fellowship with the Body, time in scripture, etc. isn't enough--there's nothing we can do or that God WILL do to make it more attractive. We either love dedicating time to worship with our church family--or we don't. And if we don't, and other things are WAY too important, we should SERIOUSLY consider why that is. The answers might be frightening, but they could save us...Literally!
So while we'll always do our best to make church an enjoyable, positive, attractive, productive, and high-quality experience-- for those of us who call him Lord, just showing-up to tell him of our love should be more than enough....
Think about that...OK?
In His Love,
Pastor Joel
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