What If Church Was Hard? (Part 2)

So, what if church was hard? What if some people stopped coming or never came to begin with because the church didn’t have padded seats, or good temperature control, or didn’t make coffee and treats, or because the fellowship hall was to small, or too loud, or too dark or too whatever? What if people didn’t come because the parking was inadequate and they would have to walk too far? What if people stopped coming because the worship service was too long or didn’t start at the right times and the music was too slow or to soft or too loud or too “different?” 

What if those things of comfort simply were not a priority because living and teaching the gospel was so overwhelmingly more important? What if those things weren’t done because the church didn’t have enough money leftover after taking care of the poor, feeding the homeless, supporting missions, and loving people with its resources? 

Would that make the church less appealing? 

Would that hinder our outreach to the community? 

Would that attract the “wrong kind” of people? 

What if the church dwindle from 500 to 100 because those people who wanted more physical comforts  left? What if the church only grew to 50 instead of 200 because those people never came? How would the church look then? Would the church be worse off without them? Would the world start to call us a cult? Would they think we had lost our minds? Would they think we were too radical? Would our lives be out of balance? Would those who were left be unable to “relate” to others? 

Would the church look more or less like the church of Acts? 

Would we be better with less and with fewer?

And whose to say that they church wouldn’t grow bigger? Maybe there would be a crazy irony that when we do things we think will deter people, it might actually attract people and keep people. Maybe they would find that there is more substance to transformation. Maybe they would see that “radically different” is more intriguing than “just a barely different.” Maybe when people came to a church like this, they would know from the very beginning that change is expected when you encounter Jesus and instead of expecting God to make everything better in their lives, maybe they would expect that God will show them a totally different kind of joy that the rest of the world doesn’t understand. 

Maybe we would encourage people to be followers instead of fans. 

Maybe we would have fewer goats, but many more sheep.