A video was posted on the PCC’s Facebook page earlier this year. In it various people give very candid responses to why they don’t go to church: Their excuses sound very familiar. “I’m nervous.” “I don’t like hypocrites.” “I’m not sure about my faith.”
These are responded to by some church-goers: “Church is right where God wants you to be.” “Church is a place where doubts are welcome, and socks are optional.” “Church is not about a religion, it’s about relationship.”
It’s a powerful video, (produced by backtochurch.com) and generated a lot of commentary online. One person wondered if the video perpetuates “butts in pews” as a metric for success when perhaps it shouldn’t be. Another replied, saying, “What I liked about it was the way it identified some of the potential barriers/questions that may keep people away from church. As a way of publicly answering those questions, maybe it’s helpful. As a way of calling the churches to live up to the answers, it is a good challenge for us. Although I don’t want to measure the success of my church by the number of butts in the pews, when a few extra butts show up in my church on Sunday morning, I sure hope they will experience the welcome that is expressed in this video.”
As Christians, I believe we have a responsibility to invite people to church. Reginald Bibby, in Restless Churches suggests that Canadian churches are missing out on the untapped potential of “affiliates.” Those are all the people who mark themselves as Presbyterian on a census form, but only use the church for baptisms, weddings and funerals. For Bibby, the bottom line comes down to this: What will bring people out and keep them coming is the realization that they are in a place that is able to deliver on the promise of good ministry. That has to be the focus of churches that aspire to touch the lives of their affiliates.
The video touched on a lot of good ways to deliver on the promise of good ministry. It tries to focus on accepting people for who they are, trusting that they belong among us, and striving towards developing relationships that can transcend our differences and open us up to being transformed by Christ. Why wouldn’t we want to invite somebody to come to our church? They might meet Jesus here!
Bibby explains that people come to churches, and people stay in churches because they find significance there. They find that their lives are touched by a response to their spiritual needs. But churches also respond to personal and social needs. Everybody has these fundamental needs for spiritual, personal and social growth and interaction. This is the core definition of ministry and this is what our church can be doing to help us grow. It takes time for people to learn about the nature and expectations of Christian faith and to become committed followers and grow in the faith. While they are doing that, they need to be ministered to. They need to know that we care about them and we want to let them into our lives.
Andrew Faiz said of the video, “I so want to believe our churches can live up to it. Still, we are, if nothing else, aspirational people. Every church should play this video on Sunday to say, ‘this is what we want to be.'”
About Wendy Adams
Rev. Wendy Adams is minister of St. Andrew’s, Armstrong, B.C., moderator of the Synod of British Columbia and an administrator of the PCC Facebook page.
