People visit our churches to “check us out”. People check us out for a variety of reasons. Some come for high, spiritual reasons; they want to discover where God wants to deploy them for his purposes. Others come for more self-serving reasons. When they visit a church, they are asking, “What might I get out of attending here? What might this church do for me?” Not the most Christian of questions!
Why, however, should we expect them to ask Christian questions, since a whole lot of them are not yet Christians?
Perhaps we should focus more on asking what we should expect of ourselves as Christians, as disciples called by Jesus to welcome and receive “publicans and sinners”,
As those he commands to go and make new disciples, shouldn’t we be delighted that some potential new disciples come to us, even if for less than the highest reasons? Maybe they are coming to hear good music and be entertained, to establish business connections, to look for a handout, or to meet attractive people; but at least they are coming, and for that we should thank God. For if they come (for whatever reasons), and our churches are what they should be, they will after all hear the good news of God’s love and experience his love through his people. They are, whether they intend it or not, putting themselves in a position where the Spirit can get a good shot at them.
When people are exposed to the love of believers, the truth of God’s word, and the power of God’s Spirit, some of them will be transformed, and they will start to love Jesus, not for what he can do for them, but for who he is.
Let us also never forget that many of us, who now serve Christ out of loving gratitude, first “checked out” Christ because we wanted something from him: release from guilt, a sense of meaning, the promise of a new start in life, involvement with a group of caring people – or, let’s be honest, to check out some follower of Christ to whom we were attracted, to be a part of a church sports team, or to hear good jokes from a funny and entertaining preacher . I think of one vibrant, new believer who first gave a serious look at Christ just because his people paid her electricity bill and kept her power from being shut off!
Christ met each of us believers on our own terms. Though he has not left a single one of us as we are, he accepted each of us as we are – with all our self-preoccupations and lack of noble interests.
Christ calls us to love others as he loved us. How Christian are we willing to be? Let us refuse to indulge annoyance over visitors “using” the church for their own ulterior ends. Let us praise God for whoever visits our church, for whatever reason, and open our hearts to them in loving acceptance.
