Last weekend some great friends invited my family to the Circus at the Macon Coliseum. If you haven't been to the circus - GO! It was amazing. Right on time, the lights in the coliseum dimmed and then BANG! the spotlights were on the central ring and the ringmaster could be heard over the speakers welcoming the gathered crowd to the greatest show on earth!I think it MAY actually be the greatest show on earth. The night was amazing. from one entertaining presentation to the next everything flowed perfectly. While attention was directed to one area, the workers were setting up another area and the performers were getting ready. As soon as the clowns finished the spotlight changed and high above on the tightrope 3 performers got to work wowing the crowd with their talent. It went like that, one performance after another all the way through to the intermission. The intermission ended and the 2nd half of the night was just as great as the first! It was incredible.
Time and time again, as I thought about all that went into making the Greatest Show on Earth the greatest show on earth, I thought about church - particularly Attractional Church. T
he two seem very similar, at least in my experience with a church who thinks attractionally. In the particular church I have experience with, the basic thinking was that the more the church could offer and do, the more people we would have coming to the church. It was sort of a "if you build it, they will come" mentality. Our mission, it seemed, was to get people to come to church. Now the leadership would never state that as the mission. They would probably say that making disciples and seeing them grow in Christ was the mission, but in practice, that was almost alway secondary to how many programs we could offer and how well we could pull them off. I heard the pastor of the church say many times that the church needed "more hooks in the water." He explained, "The more hooks there are in the water, the more likely you are to catch something."The Greatest Show on Earth - the Circus - has something for everybody! I don't really enjoy the weeny dogs doing tricks - but one of my kids did. I did like the crazy guys on the spinning wheels, but my youngest didn't seem impressed. All in all we each left having had a great time and we were all willing to come again (even though I didn't like the weeny dogs). That seems to be the goal of many attractional churches - do many different things to please many different people - you may not like Sunday School, but your kids will love children's worship - or one of the many other programs that are offered.
Not only must we use many "hooks" to attract people, but the things that we do must be show quality. I sat in on a staff meeting or 10 where the topics of discussion centered on such incredibly spiritual things as - how the worship service flows - how the closing prayer should be short and upbeat - how much the performers, I mean participants in the service should all smile and, like the prayer be energetic and upbeat - how to "do" communion was based on how long it took as opposed to how effectively in communicated the gospel or how it actually called us to commune with Jesus - Discipleship classes were decided based on how many people could be attracted as opposed to whether or not they actually discipled... I could continue, but I think you get the point. The danger of attractional church is that if we are not careful, everything becomes THE BIG SHOW - how can we entertain you and your childern? What will it take to get you to come, then to keep you coming? Like the circus. I am sure that every part of the show is evaluated based on how people enjoy it and will it keep them coming.I am not opposed to the church being attractive. We should be. Jesus is.
I like the way Mark Driscoll addresses the positive of the attractional nature of church. I believe if we look like Jesus, people will be attracted - I believe if we sing and play our instruments and preach to the Glory of God - people will be attracted. The issue isn't attracting people - the issues are more in line with WHY are we wanting to attract people? And What are we doing with the people we attract? And in the way we "do" church, are we reflecting the clear commands of Scripture - As you go, make disciples - baptizing and teaching / that we might proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light / we (the members of the church) are ambassadors of Christ / you get the point - we are now the hands and feet and mouth of Jesus Christ - we are the Gospel carriers, not simply the church inviters. As pastors we are to equip the saints for the works of service - not entertain the masses as we grow a big congregation.
So - here are a few thoughts on how this impacts New City Church...
The mission of New City is Gospel transformation - not comfortable entertainment.
Therefore:
- we admit that while we strive to glorify God in all that we do, we will not be the Greatest Show on Earth and we're OK with that
- our programming will be kept simple and will always be judged by how well it works toward accomplishing our mission, not by how much it is enjoyed or by how many it "attracts"
- our people will always be pushed out not called in. The mission makes each believer a missionary. Missionaries take the message OUT to their culture, their city, their world.
