Craig Groeschel from lifechurch has been doing a series of blogs on “It shouldn’t matter, but..” the latest, has been thought by many pastor, but not spoken. Thanks Craig for your boldness to speak what many are thinking.
In the church world, entertainment shouldn’t even be a consideration. God’s Word and His presence should be enough. I want to believe that with all my heart. (And my wife would stand by the statement forever.)
Entertainment shouldn’t matter. But sometimes it does.
The Church must recognize that we are competing for people’s attention. If you’re a church leader, your competition isn’t First Baptist Church, Shadow Valley Community Church or Holy Zion Apostolic Temple of Praise.
Your competition is:
- The golf course
- Snow skiing
- The lake house
- Sunday soccer games
- Second Life
- Mountain climbing
- Sleeping in
- American idol, Desperate Housewives, and 24
- And a million other entertaining things
In the 1950’s, people were paying attention to the church and our message about Christ. We didn’t have to work to gain attention. The year is 2007 and things have changed.
I’ll be honest, I don’t like to think about how to gain and keep people’s attention with humor, suspense, stories, video etc. But a wise communicator and leader understands that in today’s world, even though entertainment shouldn’t matter, when it comes to getting and keeping someone’s attention to hear about Jesus, it often does.
(For the record, I’m not saying entertainment changes lives. It doesn’t and never will.)
I know many of you disagree. Let it rip!
Other Churches are not the competition, it’s the stuff of the world. We must know our true competition and then be heed the voice of Jesus, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents,…”