My thoughts exactly
I just read this post and it reaffirmed my thoughts about the church completely. I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again.
People aren't interested in what your church isn't (in a prior post I said that our original web domain name was www.notyourgrandmaschurch.com - the Christian ghetto people thought it was hilarious (myself included) but those not in church thought it was lame) Just like you're not interested in what a car isn't that you are going to purchase. You want to know what it is!
So many times churches think that they are in competition with each other. They say "We're no like them...we're better! Come to our "church" instead! We're 'cool'" Meanwhile, buddy on the street walks by laughing and disgusted.
We strive to do our best because people are programmed to not gravitate towards awful. When I go to a restaurant, I expect to be greeted, treated warmly, asked how I am, seated at a nice seat, served good hot food - fast, not alienated and asked to leave immediately after we're done...etc. On any given Sunday, we don't want people to walk away thinking that was the worst thing they've ever been too. The people weren't friendly, the music sucked, the coffee was bad, the speaker talked forever and lost me in the first 5 mins, I had no idea where to go when I got inside, etc.
However, in our striving to do our best, we also do our best to not compare ourselves to other churches...because we're not them. We are who we are. In fact, we aren't even in competition with other churches in our area. We are in competition with the lake, sleeping in, hangovers, shopping, breakfast in bed, cartoons, etc. We don't advertise "we rock...everyone else sucks and we aren't like them". Because people aren't interested in what something isn't...they want to know who you are, why you're that way and what difference the "thing" you're "selling" will make in their lives.
People aren't interested in what your church isn't (in a prior post I said that our original web domain name was www.notyourgrandmaschurch.com - the Christian ghetto people thought it was hilarious (myself included) but those not in church thought it was lame) Just like you're not interested in what a car isn't that you are going to purchase. You want to know what it is!
So many times churches think that they are in competition with each other. They say "We're no like them...we're better! Come to our "church" instead! We're 'cool'" Meanwhile, buddy on the street walks by laughing and disgusted.
We strive to do our best because people are programmed to not gravitate towards awful. When I go to a restaurant, I expect to be greeted, treated warmly, asked how I am, seated at a nice seat, served good hot food - fast, not alienated and asked to leave immediately after we're done...etc. On any given Sunday, we don't want people to walk away thinking that was the worst thing they've ever been too. The people weren't friendly, the music sucked, the coffee was bad, the speaker talked forever and lost me in the first 5 mins, I had no idea where to go when I got inside, etc.
However, in our striving to do our best, we also do our best to not compare ourselves to other churches...because we're not them. We are who we are. In fact, we aren't even in competition with other churches in our area. We are in competition with the lake, sleeping in, hangovers, shopping, breakfast in bed, cartoons, etc. We don't advertise "we rock...everyone else sucks and we aren't like them". Because people aren't interested in what something isn't...they want to know who you are, why you're that way and what difference the "thing" you're "selling" will make in their lives.
