Continuing the theme from last week's last couple of posts, I'm still examining the idea of things such as the attractiveness, or lack thereof, which can serve to drive people away from churches. Again, to repeat myself, it is not the message of the Gospel when I say that people are less likely to be driven away when facilities are nice and clean, and when people are warm and friendly. At best, I would say that we merely hope that they will not be driven away by the things we can control. Our goal should always be to allow one thing only to drive them away, that being the scandal of the Gospel message.
Now, I don't know about you, but I notice when a building is fairly well-kept when I enter it. I notice when the people there are warm and welcoming. I also notice when the place is unkempt, and when the people are less than joyful to interact with. If I have to return to the place, I would much rather return to the place where the people are friendly and the upkeep is noticeable, and I would rather not have to return to the place where the people are distant and the surroundings are less than admirable.
However, I have never found myself returning to a place simply because it was well-kept, or simply because the people were friendly. I don't find myself driving around, suddenly inspired to return to a place simply because it was neat and clean. Unless I'm feeling really bad about myself that day, I also don't stop at a place simply because there are people there that will say hi to me. I need something more than just a clean place to make me want to return.
Likewise, as we think about the condition of our churches and facilities, I whole-heartedly believe that we should strive to have nice, clean facilities, as well as warm, welcoming people. However, I do NOT believe that people will return simply because we have a nice looking building. I do NOT believe people will return simply because someone said hello to them. These are more along the lines of things that we can do to avoid turning people away. These are not the kind of things that will keep people coming back again and again.
So what is it that makes you want to come back to a church or to a worshiping community? I'll start looking a bit more at those in the coming posts.
Now, I don't know about you, but I notice when a building is fairly well-kept when I enter it. I notice when the people there are warm and welcoming. I also notice when the place is unkempt, and when the people are less than joyful to interact with. If I have to return to the place, I would much rather return to the place where the people are friendly and the upkeep is noticeable, and I would rather not have to return to the place where the people are distant and the surroundings are less than admirable.
However, I have never found myself returning to a place simply because it was well-kept, or simply because the people were friendly. I don't find myself driving around, suddenly inspired to return to a place simply because it was neat and clean. Unless I'm feeling really bad about myself that day, I also don't stop at a place simply because there are people there that will say hi to me. I need something more than just a clean place to make me want to return.
Likewise, as we think about the condition of our churches and facilities, I whole-heartedly believe that we should strive to have nice, clean facilities, as well as warm, welcoming people. However, I do NOT believe that people will return simply because we have a nice looking building. I do NOT believe people will return simply because someone said hello to them. These are more along the lines of things that we can do to avoid turning people away. These are not the kind of things that will keep people coming back again and again.
So what is it that makes you want to come back to a church or to a worshiping community? I'll start looking a bit more at those in the coming posts.
I do want to be warmly welcomed, whenever I visit a church other than my home congregation, and I do appreciate the fact of a clean atmosaphere in which to worship. But, to me even though I cannot and should not try to judge people and places by thier physical attitude and appearances I do often let those charateristics enfluence my thoughts. I feel that we are called to be servants of the most Holy one and as such called servants we should clothe ourselve's in his Righteousness and light. To me this means that we should always strive to put forward our best.
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