It Looks Like Church...

There is a billboard on I-85 between High Point and Charlotte, NC.  Visualize an old lady…and I say that because she is gray-headed, wears “granny glasses” and is dressed in contemporary clothes, but ones that suggest “old.”   Read the message:  EVEN YOUR GRANDMOTHER SAYS IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE CHURCH.

Catchy?  Get your attention?  Make you want one for your church?  Yeah…we might get more people if we didn’t look like church.  

Challenge:  What does church look like that makes people want to NOT look like church?  Jesus and the way he lived his life was completely compelling to those with whom he came in contact.  What would church look like that would be compelling?  

Our first thought, being the good Americans we are, evaluates how we look and what we sing and how closely we fit with an American culture of consumerism and entertainment.  We spend tons of time and effort to decorate the sanctuary, change the music (God-forbid), eliminate prayers and other “insider” practices/language, and provide for every individual need (why the mega churches/large churches seem more successful—it’s hard for small congregations to have the resources to meet every individual need.)  

We worship when it is convenient to the family schedule, where our needs are most conveniently met, and how that doesn’t make us uncomfortable  physically, emotionally, or spiritually.  That doesn’t strike me as what church should look like.  

Check out the radical ministry of Jesus in any Gospel.  Translate that into what church ought to look like.  If we could live as Jesus lived, our billboards might read: IT LOOKS LIKE CHURCH…COME ONE IN.