Why aren't people coming to church?

I learned a new acronym this week...’BCS’...but more on that later.

I have written before about falling asleep in church….

The Pastor was in fine form….he was onto point 14 of his sermon on something or other and had just passed the 60 minute mark. He was surprised, on embarking on point 15 to see a man in the second row asleep and was deeply affronted. The Reverend kindly requested the man next to him to wake him up to receive the following reply…”You put him to sleep….why don’t you come down and wake him up yourself.”

I know that going to church is important…the writer to the Hebrews encourages us;

‘Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing’ (Hebrews 10:25)

But sometimes I wonder whether ‘I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good.’ (1 Corinthians 11:17) may be closer to the mark.

It is my solemn belief that church should be the most exciting place we go each week. We should leave feeling encouraged, a little smarter and a little closer to God and our fellow travellers. How often though do we stuff it up and bore people so much they want to stay home? Are people enduring an unpleasant experience coming to church?

My Dad is involved in prison ministry. The team has watched and wondered why the church service in one wing of the prison had dwindled down over a period of weeks to an all-time low of 2 loyal attendees.

They finally spoke with the Governor of the prison to see if there was any obvious reason….It turns out that apparently some of the prisoners had been using church as a new place to exchange contraband and a new rule had been implemented.

It is little wonder that church attendance was dropping so dramatically – perhaps a BCS (Body Cavity Search) for all attendees is almost as unpleasant as it sounds.

It's not all about me...oddly enough

My brother's blog (http://godward-thoughts.blogspot.com/2008/05/more-than-happy.html) today inspired a random thought....the thought God has a purpose for me that is not nessecarily about me.

I am continually amazed by the old adage that 'God works in mysterious ways.' God also allegedly uses the 'simple things to confound the wise.' This is of particular comfort to me. I used to think that God could not use you until you reached some form of Christian Nirvana - some imaginary state of God conciousness or enlightenment. (I can't think of any other religious worldviews to cite off the top of my head here!)

All through Scripture God repeatedly uses flawed individuals and one of my favourites is Jonah. For anyone looking for comical situations in the Bible - read the book of Jonah. It is really short.

The classical thought is that Jonah runs from God, repents and is used mightily to preach in Ninevah. I have a slightly different take for your consideration....

Yes, Jonah ran away - he got into trouble in a storm on the high seas - he gets lobbed overboard - a large fish swallows him. A bad day in anyone's book.

After 3 days and nights Jonah finally prays to God...If you read (Jonah 2) how many times he prays "I" and "me"...it is little wonder the fish vomited him up! I still maintain that at this stage Jonah has not neccesarily repented - he is just sick of the smell.

Jonah then trudges off to Ninevah and proclaims the most minimilist sermon in the Bible - "Forty more days and Ninevah will be overturned" (Jonah 3:4) Eight words! The whole city repents. (I have sat through many sermons over the years that I wish the preacher had seriously abbreviated!)

Jonah becomes very angry with God - he sits back under his vine (more on this later - this is a funny story) and waits for God to destroy Ninevah.

God has used a prophet who has gone out of his way to be rebellious and disobedient...he is angry and unreasonable - God still uses Jonah to change the hearts of a whole city - despite Jonahs' crappy attitude.

What can we learn from this?

1. God does not have to wait until we are perfect to use us

2. The call of God is irrevocable

3. Even eight words from God can change a city.

4. It's not all about me - contrary to popular opinion

Illustration by Hennie Blaauw http://www.illustrators.co.za/blaauw.htm