Coming or Going?

Recently I saw the Pastor of a very large local church being interview on church growth. This particular portion had to do with church marketing. He stated that he did everything he could to get people in the doors. That got me to thinking. Is that what we're really supposed to be doing? Don't misunderstand, I believe in marketing church....to an extent. A sign out in front, a newspaper ad, a website, facebook and twitter are all great ways to let people know you are out there. However many ministries go way beyond that, doing whatever they can, spending tens of thousands of dollars sometimes to get people to come. There are many different ways people come to Christ and a church service is definitely one way. But Jesus didn't say do what you can to have them come. He said "GO!" This is the great failure of the American church. We don't go like we should. Instead we wait for them to come. Try to pray them in. The more I think about it the more I know we need to change that and I have. Now I pray for people to come, but I pray for workers for the harvest. Jesus told us to do that in Matthew 9:38. I also pray for divine appointments for when I am out and about to share Jesus. I look for the opportunities he puts in our path. If every member of our churches were active in sharing their faith OUTSIDE of church, His kingdom would grow and so would our churches. There would be no need for us to do excessive marketing to bring them in.

What do you think?

Until next time,

Pastor Paul