Used to be that church was the group of people who like Jesus.
That was a long time ago – before any of you were alive.
Church is now a group of people who like church.
Specifically, their brand of church.
Maybe you don’t like church.
No problem!
Be part of a church that hates church!
This is “church for people who don’t like coherence”.
Let me explain.
People who don’t like church – won’t like YOUR church.
Unless, it’s a bowling alley.
Or a strip club.
And if it’s one of those things – it’s NOT A CHURCH.
Seriously, do words mean anything to you people?
You can’t just rename things to suit your purposes.
Salad for people who don’t like vegetables!
Swimming pool for people who hate water.
Person for people who don’t like people.
You’re not fooling anyone.
Sometimes, the reason people don’t like church is: Churches try to trick them into coming to church.
What kind of Christianity are you going to offer the people who don’t like Christianity?
What kind of Jesus do you preach to the people who don’t like Jesus?
Quit lying to people.
Tell the truth.
Here’s an idea for your church billboard that isn’t deceptive:
Church is not Sunday services.
Church is not a comfortable building.
Church is people.
If you don’t like people, you’ll never like church.
8 Responses
More and more it feels like churches judge their success by numbers in pews, reducing their focus to increasing them – but pew numbers don’t correlate to genuine believers
Why would they be trying to appeal to atheists? Atheists left the building long ago.
Yep.
And nothing will persuade atheists to return.
“This is “church for people who don’t like coherence”.”
Perhaps the incoherence can be explained because they’re trying to appeal to atheists. Just a thought…
Btw, I agree. Dumb marketing plan.
TL;DR version: sweeping generalizations are always dumb.
So, on the one hand – building a church for people who don’t like church is stupid, because there are many reasons not to like church. If the reasons you don’t like church include getting offended by challenging one’s beliefs about oneself or god, that’s dumb. However, if the reason you don’t like church is because most church leaders focus most of the time, money, and energy on the self-serving marketing campaign of Sunday morning service – that’s a little more reasonable ^_-.
I’m sure there’s quite the mixed bag of CFPWDLCs that fix both types of “problems”. ^_^
I think my dad is struggling to call the places where leaders focus on self-serving marketing campaigns “church.”
But–yeah.
I’d be interested in a church for people who don’t like THAT.
I can’t “like” your comment, so sending my love and prayers (even better than “liking”).
😊❤️🙏🏻❤️
My husband and I were traveling cross-country, a few years ago. We visited with friends of my husband. I went to an early-morning church service (for those who love church and Jesus). When I got back, everyone was gearing up to go to their church for people who hate church. I was surprised, as these people had been very unchristian. I was invited, and my husband was going, so I joined them. I was hopeful they had converted since I last endured them, and wanted to be supportive.
Their non-church was very deceptive, and very distressing.
There was nice music, some altered generic, non-gender hymns but sounding similar to stuff learned in childhood, so it sounded legit to someone with no training.
No scripture reading. At first it looked like an adult gathering of those who hated getting dragged to church as kids, but wanted “something” comfortable and non-challenging. (Sort of like a Unitarian Church where everyone goes to argue and feel great about themselves, and how smart they are, where the only time you hear “Jesus” is when the janitor falls down the stairs.).
This one was worse than that.
I was horrified when the “pastor” (whom I instantly disliked – you could feel the snake) invited the kids up. They marched up for a weird, non-blessing, then were sent with their teacher for training in some eastern stuff (non-bible study). As they dutifully marched out behind their teacher, to the claps of the congregation, I saw a vision of a hole in the floor opening, with fire 🔥 shooting up. As parents smiled, the children followed their teacher, as lemmings, falling into the flames.
(That was a sudden gift from the Holy Spirit.)
I was shaking and weeping for the children and zombie parents during the rest of the farce service.
My husband asked me what was wrong, I told him later when we were alone. I couldn’t wait to leave and get back on the road again.
I’ve never forgotten that horrifying instant realization of the loss of those innocent children, because of the stupidity and rebellion of the parents. They went to a non-church so they wouldn’t hear about such nasty things as sin and judgement. What kind of a deal is that? Being comfortable in the pews and sailing through a brief life doing what they pleased, and choosing to separate from God for eternity in flames?
Hell is real, and wide is the gate that leads there.
Thank you for such a great post, John. Your point is very clear, and I appreciate and love your sense of humor. Your pictures with captions made me laugh.
Hopefully you opened some eyes, and hearts.
It’s imperative to try to help turn aside those marching heedlessly along on the wide path, before they are lost forever. It’s difficult, the loud marching feet, jeers and derision from the arrogant ones in the crowd makes it unlikely for many to hear the warnings.