The short answer is yes. Yet I will challenge the priorities of today’s local church. I feel that today’s local church focuses so much of its strength of spiritual growth at a facility (a “come” mentality) that this strength might have also become its greatest weakness. This weakness could be described as creating a priority dependency on a place instead of direct listening to God’s Spirit. This strength has also become its weakness in that this priority approach to growing God’s kingdom has neglected the very people it wishes to reach, the growing 95% or more of individuals who will never choose to walk in the front door of church.
Now, there are a variety of message presenters/deliveries along with a wide range of worship music. All of which do connect with individuals from different walks of life. Yet, the “priority pyramid” still remains; the majority of time, effort, resources and energy surround a corporate approach that depends on people “walking into their store.” And similar to peoples’ purchasing habits, they will go either “stock up” on the spiritual needs (a type of spiritual binge) or attend a predetermined location when the spiritual desire demands. While a small group environment can be of great benefit, the local church still struggles with allowing the individual to grow at his/her own pace. I can and have appreciated the local church providing designated opportunities for people to come together to learn (sometimes with skilled and knowledgeable people doing the teaching. But again, with all of the resources available today, the local church can still “guide” peoples’ spiritual growth to happen when and where they desire. One of my issues with this is that I would like to see more focus on listening and responding to what they hear from God Himself. And we all know that God cannot be put on a schedule. He is talking all the time. Yet the local church could benefit greatly from teaching others to listen more to what the Lord is saying and acting upon His guidance. Herein lies the problem of priority. Any opportunity to grow spiritually is great. But when we prioritize spiritual growth as a “come and grow” opportunity, the individual is much less likely to prioritize listening to God’s voice. I mean, why not have someone teach me instead of me working hard at hearing God’s voice every day, right? Because of this come mentality approach to spiritual growth, the local church is forced a bit to spend increasing amounts of their budget in marketing themselves in a variety of ways.
The “marketing” of the church is just that, marketing the church. The church can say what it wants, but the reality is that it must market itself to “attract and influence” the people in its community in order to connect with them. While that’s all fine and dandy, the last time I checked, God doesn’t really need all our help in marketing Himself to the masses. What I’m trying to say is that there is a fine line between marketing the building and people and marketing God. I understand the need to reach a local community. Yet, I also know how much churches spend proportionately to bring people to them instead of going to others in that same community. While not all churches are doing this, I dare you to ask to look at their annual budget to find out for yourself. As a legal 501C-3, any church must release this information to anyone who asks. I don’t want to get into all of the details on how any institution can “hide” their actual numbers. But I say this so that you might know truly where the foundation for how the church operates comes from. The budget will tell all. Again, this isn’t “bad.” It just shows where the priorities lie. And for me, I am about reaching others and meeting them where they are at. I’m not placing any judgment whatsoever on any church’s priorities on how they run their church. I just believe that more often than not, the local church has, with good intentions, created dependency for spiritual growth of a person on whether or not they “come” to the church (attendance) and less of a priority on truly reaching out and connecting with its community. I could site numerous examples of this over the last few decades. But I won’t. I’m not angry, just frustrated on the inefficiencies that have developed with this approach, ultimately leading that same community to view the local church as irrelevant for their lives.
Please understand that I am wired to build relationships with people. That’s my priority. And I can’t stand “bait and switch” tactics, whether they are intentional or not. While I believe in being bold about my convictions, I also believe in earning the right to be heard. There have been and always will be times where divine intervention will be needed. Those moments when you know that the good Lord just wants to use you to share with another. But I have found over many years that “programming” God can not only often backfire but it can also push reaching/connecting with others further away, sometimes permanently. So, should I go to church? Yesssss. But be wise in how you prioritize your spiritual growth so that you don’t miss opportunities to grow God’s Kingdom through your every-day life, both at home and in your community.