Why the Community Doesn’t Trust Your Church
1 – They Think You’re a Cult
Why not? You have weekly meetings where you chant to your deity and your leader asks for your money. Sure, I know it’s innocent, but the average bystander can’t tell. I once visited a town with a very large temple dedicated to an oddball religion (which will go unnamed) right in the center of town on a big hill. The members would go in and out of that temple, all day, and insisted that their business in there was secret. Everyone in that town had watched these clandestine actions and secretly feared this mysterious religion whose members walked among them. Is your church any better? I should hope so.
2 – You’re After Their Kids
Understandably, people are reluctant to trust anyone with their children. (And, if not, they should be.) So, how should they respond when your church advertises that they are more than willing to take your children in? It’s good to let people know about your children’s programs, but if you talk about it too often it becomes creepy. Are you out to provide a church for your local community, or are you trying to collect babies? Just ask yourself what your church’s advertisements talk about the most. You might find out that you’ve made your church look like a very ambitious bounce-house.
3 – You’re Hiding Something
Everyone knows that a Christian church is a gathering place for people who Believe in Christ. But when you claim that it’s a great place for something else then you start to look suspicious. Are you trying to look cool so you can spring the Gospel on unsuspecting youths? I hope not – but that’s how it looks when you tell people how “hip” your church is. And, the worst part is, everyone sees through it. I’ve seen churches that try to appeal to hipsters (I’m not joking – they advertised the religion of “Hipster Jesus” and were completely serious about it), families, cowboys, and teenagers, and each time I was ashamed. Non-Christians see these signs and think that someone is trying to trick them into going to church – and it takes more than U2 songs to get people out of bed on Sunday mornings. Giving your church a makeover and showing your new look to the kids only makes you look like you’re hiding something – as if you don’t want to talk about Jesus Christ. And that can’t be the problem, right? Try not to use the same techniques as cult leaders in your work. There are already cool hangouts for people of all ages in town, but there’s only one place that offers them Truth.
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I especially found #3 helpful. The Scriptures (as least how I read them) seem to teach that no one is going to be all that interested in the gospel until the Spirit of God begins to generate interest in them. If that’s true, then our attempts to “market” Jesus are not only insulting, but ineffective. Best to be as faithful to the Truth as we can, instead, so that we are ready to share with those who are being drawn to it.
Well, let’s see … our church does stuff in the community and people know about us, and though we are pretty hip, we don’t make a point of being annoying about it.
I think the biggest reason a community won’t trust a church is when that church says one thing, and does another … or worse, says one thing and does nothing at all.
My beliefs line up with Mark and Thomas. Well said. 🙂
Today John 15:18-21 was brought to my attention and it feels as though it applies well here. True followers, and therefore churches, will stand out on their own just following Christ’s example. No need for marketing! Not only stand out, but actually be hated by those that embrace the world and will not respond to God’s call.
Are you receiving hateful responses because you love Christ? I have not yet therefore I know my heart is not yet conformed to Christ’s call. John 15 is a great reminder to seek God whole-heartedly that we do evoke such a response by merely being!
True Christianity has a stigma associated with it; one that will never fade because the very nature of man is anti-God!
You know, the best thing that a church can do is to not to recruit people into it, but to reach out to those people that need them. Work in your homeless shelters. Throw parties for your orphanages.
Help stock and distribute at your food pantries. When people see your good hearts, they will be drawn to you. I too get irritated with all of the hype, and money being spent, on trying to draw people in!
preaching Christ, not your church pluses, is freeing. Can you imagine Paul telling the Corinthians to preach their own church pluses? Does relying on a church’s church-pluses do something spiritual to an outsider? to an insider?
I say this because to make a prediction, that “true followers will certainly …” produce this or that result — that is just another way of asserting, that the result, if it’s missing, is due to a lack of true followers.
So generalizations about what a “true church always produces,” sometimes called “marks,” is almost always a way people have put together to rule out, not to affirm, particular churches. Why? Because of the “always produces” rule. Like the military’s two-mile time for some deployments, “always” must be re-checked.
It just occured to me that an implication of your post, Adam, is that, since Shriner’s Hospitals are so well and highly regarded, yet the Masonic system is a secretive ceremonial syncretism, what does being highly regarded in our actions actually prove about our beliefs?
Not only that, but if you think about it, do sheep go into the sheepfold hoping sheep will trust them? I think wolves do, however, that is, they go into the sheepfold hoping sheep will trust them. Relying on Shepherd not sheep is probably one of the reasons the image was chosen, by the Shepherd, incidentally.