Observations

My heart for the "unchurched" is radically being changed.

I have grown up in church and have attended many churches in the past 5 years. Having said this, I believe God gave me a new insight on the church this past summer. At the beginning of the summer I began wondering, why is it so difficult for someone new to enter a church?

I began to pray that God would show me and I became increasing observant of the churches I experienced.

In my exploration of churches this summer, I found it was very difficult to just walk into a strange church.

Thoughts of:

Will they accept me?

Will what I wear be appropriate (dressy enough/not dressy enough)?

Should I just stay home...it would be much easier?

Will they judge me?

I attended several different churches, faithfully going to the same services. I created different tactics as I observed:

-Arrive early & find a seat (usually in the middle), this was to see if anyone would go out of their way and speak with me.

-Arrive early & try to talk to people in the entryway, trying to show I was interested in getting to know them.

-Attending other events beside the churches main services, to view how the church interacts with their members and with their guests in a social environment.

I found: There are a select few who take the time to recognize a new face, and the rest hold on tight to what they know, their friends.

Even if the church has a "greet the new people time" during service, most people would greet their friends and not the new people.

The select few greeting = pastors/leaders & the greeting committees.

The Church desires to grow, yet it gets so caught up in its own "church clicks" it forgets to accept new members into the family. We (the church) mingle with every familiar face, yet do not take time for the person who does not belong...YET SHOULD BELONG.

The church does one thing right, they focus on children, which brings in families.

I found that the majority of churches have 3 focus points:

Children, Teens, & Adults (over the age of 30 & primarily married couples)

My question is what about those who don't fall into these categories?

For example: college students/young adults between 20-30 or senior citizens who aren't completely sure what their place is anymore.

My Challenge is to "The Church":

-Step out of yourself and do something selfless:

Invite someone to church

Talk to someone new who comes to church

-Put aside your agenda and see how God could use you!!