i know this might be a weird concept. i never really considered it before until yesterday at church. john asked the question, "would you still come to church if you were charged ticket prices?" i know multiple people who spend money on season tickets to the colts, red sox, butler and i dont want to focus on them spending money on those tickets. if i lived in the boston area and could afford it i would try to have tickets to the patriots. but there is an anticipation that comes when you buy a ticket to go to a sporting event or a musical performance. we expect to go and experience a time of cheering on our team, yelling out specific things to players like we know them and they will hear everything we say. we hope to go an enjoy the contest with our team coming out the victor. but how do we approach going to church?
most of us, wake up on sunday morning and pile into the car to drive to church. we walk in the door and greeted by a friendly smile. we go grab a cup of coffee to help wake us up as we walk into the sanctuary as the first song has already started. we look around for friends and if we see them hope their is a few seats beside them, if not you know they will be there soon so you try to find a few seats on the end so they can join you when they come. instead of starting to sing you glance through the bulletin to see what is going on during the next week. the worship pastor greets you, reads scripture or opens in prayer and starts off into the second song. it is a new song, you have never heard it before so you listen to the words and try to figure out the tune. but it is kind of repetitious so you start wondering what you might have for lunch...
i am not sure if you have ever had a sunday like this. i have definitely had more then a few. it seems at times as soon as i walk into the sanctuary i have a.d.d. and i can not concentrate. however every time i go to a sporting event or concert i try to take in every moment. enjoy it, try to experience each part because a. i know this could be the only chance i have to attend something like this for a while and b. i enjoy this event enough to shell out hard earned money that i worked for.
i understand that we tithe but that is not seen as the same as buying a ticket. outreach for a church would be difficult because if you invite a friend to church you have to tell him to buy a ticket. so obviously charging for church is not a great idea. but it seems that we can take church for granted. it becomes an every week event and we become content where we are lacking a sense of passion.
a few questions. where is our passion? is it in the right place? being used for right motives? church will continue to go on but how can we make it a place that is not stale? is it the churches fault we have lost our passion? or can we blame it on ourselves for having a lack of heart and come to church with the anticipation of meeting with our heavenly Father who created us and loved us enough to send His Son to die and now He wants to meet with us, so He can know us and we can know Him.
as always just a few thoughts to get your juices flowing.
