Times are Changing

I co-teach the membership class at our church. In that class we list (probably from Rick Warren) the top four reasons people don't attend church. Here they are.

1. Sermons are boring and irrelavent.
2. Members are unfriendly to visitors.
3. Churches are only interested in your money.
4. Churches lack quality child care.

Fair enough, as a church we have tried to change to take away barriers so that more people will come to church. Only one thing . . . I was reading a blog by Dan Kimball (I have it as a permanent link on my page)and he made a list which talks about why people don't attend church. Here is his list.

1. The Church is an “Organized Religion” with a political agenda
2. The Church is Judgmental and Negative
3. The Church is Male Dominated and Female Oppressive
4. The Church is Homophobic
5. The Church Thinks They Have the Exclusive Way to God (and everyone else is wrong)
6. The Church takes the Bible too literally and are “Fundamentalists”

I think this is an accurate list. Times are changing, it seems just about the time we fix the problems of why people don't like church a whole new set of things emerges. I could add to this list . . . but I won't for now.

So my thought is if we were just more like Jesus, maybe we wouldn't be seeing as such things, maybe we would attract people not because of what we aren't, but because of what we are . . . loving, accepting, graceous . . . for God loves mercy over sacrifice.