GENERATING excitement can be tough!
I laughed at a cartoon I saw recently which pictured a perplexed church member reading the front page of a church bulletin entitled The Stone Valley Church Enquirer.
These were the headlines: Purple Aliens Spotted in Church Kitchen / Is Church Elder Really Elvis? Church Records Say Yes! / Lose 20 Lbs. in 4 Weeks By Playing in Bell Choir! The cartoon was captioned, “Attempts to make the church newsletter more exciting were getting out of hand.” Indeed!
By the same token, a church growth “expert” was once asked what a struggling church could do to make its worship the sort of exciting event that would increase attendance and compete with the slickly-packaged TV services, sports events, recreational activities, etc., which conspire to draw away members. He replied that churches pretty much have to start their worship and programs with something that will generate the excitement of, say, a nuclear explosion and work their way up.
If he’s right, most average-sized churches standing in the shadow of mega-churches have about as much chance as a Mom & Pop Five & Dime planted across the street from Wal-Mart. We’re in trouble because we can’t afford much slick packaging, or too many nuclear events either, for that matter.
What we can do is the same thing “good,” faithful churches of all sizes have been doing well for centuries: We can point people to God’s grace in a very personal way as we walk together daily genuinely sharing His love and genuinely sharing our lives.
By the way, did I mention that we have it on good authority that Space Aliens from Mars Will Beam Elvis Down to a Local Church Near You this Sunday? It’d be a real shame to miss that!
I hope you’ll be in worship this Sunday. The fact is that “where two or three are gathered together in His name,” someone a lot more important than Elvis is in their midst.
But I’d still like to get a look at those purple aliens!