When A Church's Focus Is Off

Let's be honest, most churches in America are really trying to do what God wants, but go about it in the wrong way. It's obvious that it is important to have people in the church, and and as a result, many churches fall into the trap of prioritizing "more people." The thought process becomes, "If we just had a new sign (or youth pastor, or music minister, or church building), people would come!" Soon enough, the priority becomes doing whatever it takes to get more people to come, because that's what God wants, right? Right??

A common sin here is compromise. We make small, sublte changes in the way we preach, sing, teach, talk, love, just because we think more people will come if we change enough to satisfy their tastes. This has been a common trend throughout the ages. I think the "ABCs of becoming a Christian" were created as a result of this. People wanted a simple way to get into heaven, so the church made up the ABCs to make Christianity sound easy and painless. But it's not. In fact, it's hard, bloody, tempting, painful, and oh so worth it. It's like if a professional football team wanted more players, and advertised that playing in the NFL was super easy, painless, required no training or dedication, and you got paid handsomely, and they did this to draw people off the streets. It's silly! It would never work! Playing pro football demands hundreds of man hours of dedication, pints of blood, and gallons of sweat. It's so hard, so challenging. Not everyone can do it. In fact, most people can't.

Most people can't be Christians either. Jesus told us this. He stated that most would miss the path that leads to eternal life. So why do churches make it so important to focus on "everyone"? The focus should be on mentoring, discipling, teaching those who care, who are there and ready to learn, those who want to be there. The church would be better off if we stopped worrying so much about those who aren't there and made it a priority to love on those who are. Please don't misread this post and walk away thinking that I said to stop caring about the lost, those who haven't heard the Good News. I'm saying that the church has the tendancy to place focus on those they cannot help and neglect those who are there and willing to be helped. Focus on those ready and willing and help them! Love them! Mentor them! Disciple them! Tell them about the love they can find in God! Do it without regret or hesitation and give your all for them!