attractional church

“God, bring people in; when they’re driving by the church, guide them in.”

I hear this prayer often. I sense this mentality even more. In fact, I embody it on a fairly regular basis. But it is a misguided request.

This idea, these words come from genuine hearts – people dedicated to a relationship with God, Christians concerned about people who are “outsiders”. And there is a lot that seems right about the statement. Shouldn’t church be a place that attracts people? Shouldn’t the thought of Sunday service stimulate (rather than repulse) people? Isn’t it good to be thought of as a relevant, happening, attractive church?

But this idea of an attractional church, one that asks those outside to come inside is misguided. Misguided, because it encourages the opposite mindset than should be characteristic of the Church, of Jesus’ body:

Mission.

Mission implies outward movement, direction, purpose; attraction indicates inactivity and wishful thinking (and not Frederick Buechner’s idea of wishful thinking).

Mission-oriented Church is people who purposefully live out their life as their relationship with Christ.  Everything is included:  work, recreation, family, neighborhood.  It is holistic in nature.  Everything touched is sacred because the Sacred has touched the Church.  Mission-oriented (missional) people don’t necessarily seek to invite people to church, but instead to meet them where they are, loving them simply because they yet contain the faded Image of the Divine who created them.  Missional people embody Christ in their worlds, seeking not to separate things into “sacred” or “secular” categories.  They are the Church in the world.

Missional people go outside the church building walls; missional Church is seeking people, living in relationship with those inside and outside of Christian faith.

Attractional Church is unfortunately just that:  hoping to attract the outsiders to something going on inside.  How we think reveals our understanding of church: it it something to which people will be attracted?  In that case it’s them coming to us.

But it should be us going to them.