I have had too many conversations with people in the church lately that have gone kind of like this:
Someone will remark on a church service or something we have done in the church and they will say how nice and meaningful it was. Then they will close by saying something like, “It’s a shame that there weren’t more people here to be a part of it.”
I used to nod my head and agree when people said things like that, but lately I’ve been wondering why I don’t respond in a different way.
Why don’t I say, “Yeah, I know. By the way, who did you invite this morning and who did you tell about what we were doing here?”
Actually, I know why I don’t ask questions like that — it’s because I know what the answer would be. Most people would never even consider talking to anyone about what goes on in their church.
There is an assumption behind those laments over lack of attendance that people make. People are assuming that going to a church service is something that people automatically see as something worthwhile. It is a kind of “If you build it, they will come,” mentality — the kind of thinking that was highlighted in the movie, Field of Dreams. We assume that if you just build a good church service or program people will just come.
That may have been true in an age when society in general saw church attendance as a good and even a necessary thing — when there were society pressures that drove people into church.
I don’t know if you have noticed this, but we’re not living in that world anymore.
People won’t just go to church anymore just because it is a good thing to do or because there is a nice service. But they might go if they hear that there is something going on that speaks to them and their life. They might go if someone tells them about it. They’re even more likely to go if someone invites them or, even better, goes with them. But they won’t just decide to go on their own.
But we don’t talk about what we do in church and we don’t invite people — hardly ever. We need to change that mentality because,frankly, we do some pretty good and worthwhile stuff — stuff that will benefit others a great deal.
That is why I created the following video which introduces my upcoming series of sermons. Take a look at it now.

The reason why I created this was to give the people of St. Andrew’s an easy way to share what we are doing at St. Andrew’s. It is something worth sharing. And this is my challenge to the people of St. Andrew’s: share this video.

Post it and share it on Faceboook. You can just paste something like this into your status:

Here is what we are talking about at my church next month. It should be interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63goKgDiuMI

Tweet it — how about something like this:

St. Andrew’s #Hespeler is talking about money in new ways next month. #Money #Jesus #share#money #rootofallevil #share https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63goKgDiuMI

Or you can just email the link to your friends:

Here is what I’m going to be learning and thinking about next month:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63goKgDiuMI

We have set the goal of having this video viewed over 750 times in the next ten days, can you help us get there?