Articles
Churches Drawing Crowds
(April Theme: Authority...In The Church Work/Worship)
How is the church to draw a crowd? This past weekend, there were certainly several examples just in the Clarksville area alone!
The First Baptist Church of Clarksville had a special musical for their Easter service. Christ Lutheran Church of Clarksville spruced it up further with an Egg Hunt and even Brunch afterwards.
Of course, there are more events coming up beyond Easter weekend. The Evangel North Church is scheduled to have a Sunday service dedicated to Mother’s Day. In fact, their website said, “Please spread the word about this special Mother’s Day service and extend the invitation to all the wonderful mothers you know within our church community. Let us make this day an extraordinary celebration of the women who have played an extraordinary role in our lives” (evangelnorth.net). A whole service dedicated to this.
I’m sure that these events along with several others have attracted some from the community from time to time. The question that must be answered is: If someone comes to a worship service for this reason is that a good thing? Is it a success?
What Is Worship For?
The worship service is not a “worship SERVE-US!” The primary point and focus of worship is God (Ps. 100; 122:1; Jn. 4:23-24). In fact, the Bible clarifies that when worship focuses on something outside of God it is idolatry or at the very least unscriptural (Rom. 1:20-23).
This isn’t to say that we don’t benefit from worshiping God! We learn, grow, and get encouragement. However, if our priority is on what I can get out of this then something’s wrong.
The focus on self is supposed to be how to prepare self to best worship God (Rom. 12:1). So if we’re being attracted to worship by something other than God, or we’re “assembling together” for a purpose outside of honoring and obeying His commandments for the church — can we really say that we’re definitionally “worshiping”? This very well would be a “conformed” mindset than a “transformed” one (Rom. 12:2).
So, How Are WE Drawing People In?
What does God use to attract people to Him? His Word — the “good news” of the resurrected Jesus Christ. This is how Paul drew people into Christ’s church (1 Cor. 15:1-9; also 1 Cor. 2:1-2; 1:18; Jn. 6:44-45; 12:32); in fact, he says that using ANYTHING else would be falling short of the very “power of God” (1 Cor. 2:3-5).
If we’re coming to worship simply because there’s a children’s egg hunt provided, is that for self or God? Is it really for God if I’m at worship because the group will provide a meal afterward? What if it’s to honor my mother instead for Mother’s Day? The answer is clear.
This isn’t to say that these things are ineffective because they lack entertainment or allure. It is to say that they are ineffective (i.e. unsuccessful) because they lack the Gospel!
More to the point, if we’re trying to bring people in through any work other than what God has prescribed (evangelism), it is unscriptural and an affront to God!
Whatever it be -a giveaway, egg hunt, scholarly presentation, special service honoring someone else, basketball tournament, movie marathon- if we draw people to church outside of God’s designated work, is it truly to Christ we’re leading them?
