When people visit our church I'm always interested to find out what they thought. In fact, I love hearing people describe any church experience because I find they are more apt to talk about: music, scene, sermon, etc; things the church might have a part in, but most people don't talk about the church, which for all you biblical scholars is: the people. It's far & few between when visitors actually say: "I loved the people!"
Sadly, because we've moved so far from expecting the church (the people) to represent the church at any given time, we've discovered how non-communities (Starbucks for instance) create a semblance of community. So, church staffs make up the difference by creating or training small groups within the larger church to act out how the general church should act. Therefore, we create groups of: ushers & greeters; in order to give people the sense of: community & fellowship (church). I used to facilitate this as the Sunday Director for a 1200+ church & we trained our people right!
However, during the "meet your neighbor time," (I call it introvert nightmare time) something becomes glaringly evident: The church isn't as interested in being the church as it is in watching or attending a service. So, in order to overcome the glaring awkwardness of non-church within the service we release the trained to make up the difference. So, when people are asked: "what did you or do you like about that church?" they don't generally say: My neighbor. But why would they? No one comes to church to love their neighbor; They only come to hear that they "should" love their neighbor. (Which is optional since the greeter guy's already doing such a good job of it.)
Too, the size of the church isn't the issue. I visited a friend's small church &, as I often do, I didn't say hi to anyone, but sat in back. Why? Because I wanted to see if the church would invite me into community. The worship was nice, the sermon Biblical; however, when my friend asked me, "so what did you think?" I answered, "Nobody said hi to me." The people weren't being the church.
When people visit our church they might notice several things; yet, will they notice the church within the "service?" More importantly, will the community reach those outside of it & invite them into the church whether on Sundays or any other day of the week? Will the church shine above the service, or will we train special groups to: make it seem like we're something we're not.
I sat with some visitors to our church this Sunday & listened to them for some time. They had many interesting things to say, but one thing stood out to me as we spoke. One woman, with her friends in agreement said this: "You have a wonderful group of people here." I would agree: We have a wonderful church.
But what about my sermon?
