Churches are on a mission to be more "lost-friendly," and if that's not a mission of your church then it's time that you revisited your values.
Jesus has always emphasized His value for the lost. In Luke 19:10, Jesus said, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Further in Mark 2:17, Jesus also said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."
In the same way Jesus values sinners and lost people, we are also to value what He values. Many times, however, no matter how hard we try to value and reach the lost, they just seem to never come. That's because sometimes, a pastor's heart is there to reach the lost, but His church service is not.
Here are three ways that church services can be non-friendly to lost people and first-time attendees.
Being too moralistic
It has been said that a church that preaches anything other than Christ is doomed to fall short. As simple as this sounds, many preachers tend to find themselves preaching good works instead of the love and salvation through Christ.
Moralistic preachings that glorify rules and law can scare away first-timers. That is not to say that we no longer preach the law, but that we do so with the lens of Christ's finished work at all times.
Being too mystical
A spirit-empowered church and a mystical church are not always the same thing. In our services, we must always move by the spirit, but not in a way that glorifies spookiness and supernatural signs and wonders. It must be in a way that glorifies Christ.
While it is healthy practice to move prophetically and with spiritual sensitivity, there is always a way to package God's move in a way that does not scare away first-timers.
Reaching out with a catch
2 Corinthians 5:18 says, "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." We are called to reach the lost, but it is never our job to convince, save or convert them.
When worship services become too much about religious conversion, we not only miss the point but also scare away those who see so much intention to grow church numbers and no desire to love others. The goal of the church is to add people to the church, but that is a job that only God and God Himself can do.
