Read these intriguing thoughts from Bill Hull, in his book Christlike: The Pursuit of Uncomplicated Obedience:
“Pastors commonly teach that all God’s activity on this earth is mediated through the local church. This has led to the teaching that the highest priority for Christians is to get the world to go to church. As a result, all the money, personnel, and attention are focused on the Sunday-gathered church. While I believe that what happens on Sunday is every bit as important as what happens the other six days of the week, Scripture never commands non-Christians to go to church. We have wasted a lot of time, money, and resources attempting to convince them they should. This accounts for huge neon signs that say such things as “Come Grow with Us,” or “Wednesday Night is Family Night,” or “Sermon Series, ‘The End of the World,’ Be There!'”
“This all seems so ineffectual, even silly. The church meets in order to go to the world, and that world can be called the harvest field. To borrow one of Jesus’ images, the church goes out to live as wheat among tares. We are so closely connected to others that only God’s wisdom and knowledge can separate the two.” (pgs. 50-51, NavPress, 2010).
I’m being challenged by this book so far. Interesting thoughts. What do you think?
Dear Kathy, I hope the author says elsewhere in the book that our main mission is to bring Christ to others, but agrees with scripture that we must not "forsake the gathering together" of believers. In this excerpt, by itself, he seems to be naively assuming that all efforts at keeping churches healthy and active and advertising services are solely to bring the world IN. Yes, we who support churches would love to have non-Christians come in to hear the gospel but the churches are also to keep brothers and sisters strong in the Lord to face the world. Those goals are not "silly" and many have come to true faith and trust in Christ inside church walls. Blessings – soprano sweetheart