Are you not entertained? :: Take3 ::

“What you draw people with, you draw people to.”

I was having a conversation about the production side of a worship service with a friend of mine and he shared this quote with me.

I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since.

I’ve been asking myself, “What are we using to draw people to Jesus?” And then the follow up question has to be, “Are we really drawing people to Jesus?”

If we use pizza to draw people…we draw them to pizza.

If we use pizzazz to draw people…we draw them to pizzazz.

If we use flawless production to draw people…we draw them to flawless production.

If we use tradition to draw people…we draw them to tradition.

Our team at Impact was discussing this and we were asking ourselves some very hard questions. We strive to do things with quality, with excellence, we want to do things well. But I wonder sometimes if by doing things so flawlessly (please understand our production/worship service is so far from flawless) we are communicating a very dangerous message to the people we are attracting.

I wonder if we are saying to people, “The only way something is great, something is effective, something is beautiful, is if that something is done flawlessly.”

Do you see why this can be so dangerous?

If you as a person are not flawless then are you beautiful?

If you as a person are not flawless then are you effective?

If you as a person are not flawless then are you great?

See, those of us who are creating environments for worship, who are planning worship services, who are brainstorming ideas that will attract people…we have a huge responsibility.

Everything thing we decide to do communicates a message. Not just a message about a worship service but a message about who people are and what makes someone or something valuable.

This is dangerous.

If a worship service is striped of lights, glamor, great sound and smooth transitions…is it still effective? valuable? worth while?

If you’re answer is no then answer this question…If a person is stripped of fashion, makeup, the right car, the big house, a good job, a fat salary…can that person still be effective? valuable? worth while?

With every decision we make…we are communicating a message…not just a message about church growth…but a message about the identity and value of a person.

We must be careful how far we take this…we might wake up one day with a Church full of people that are very pretty on the outside but a complete hidden mess on the inside.