CREEDE HINSHAW: Don’t place your faith in gimmicks

There’s always a church looking for that sure-fire gimmick to draw the bored, curious or backsliders to the pew.

A middle Georgia congregation recently held a “no-excuse Sunday” promising to eliminate every excuse that kept people from attending church. The church had a car wash in the parking lot for those who might have washed dirty vehicles instead of being washed in the word, a masseuse for those who would have skipped church with sore muscles, a mattress for those who wanted to sleep late, and so on.

It was good-natured gimmickry, solidly in the mainstream of churches and pastors trying almost anything to attract a crowd. I knew a preacher who promised his congregation he would allow himself to be pushed down the center aisle of the sanctuary in a wheelbarrow if the crowd was large enough. I know another preacher who agreed to preach a sermon from the church roof if enough people appeared in the side yard.

These tactics seem to fall broadly under the Apostle Paul’s description of being a fool for Christ’s sake. I confess – as must almost every pastor – to having been engaged in a few stunts on behalf of attendance and the church budget, too, although I was often in two minds about it.

One can’t help but wonder what John Wesley, Martin Luther, John Calvin and other leaders of the church, Catholic or Protestant, would say about such tactics. Although Jesus drew huge crowds wherever he went, he never publicized healings, free food or great soloists. Instead, he tried to tamp down all acclaim.

Times change. Getting people to come to church isn’t so easy. Furthermore, one church’s definition of silliness is another church’s definition of saving people by all means necessary.

Eliminating excuses for not attending church is not intrinsically wrong, but stunts and gimmicks will have no lasting effect on people. There are more excuses out there than the church can ever eliminate.

The church that wants to seriously proclaim the gospel might invest itself in these two activities:

1 — The preacher/pastor/priest must invest a major amount of time weekly to prepare a biblically-based, relevant sermon avoiding cliché, stale jokes and outdated stories. This weekly commitment will demand that the pastor ruthlessly order his/her schedule to accomplish this holy task.

2 — The music should be of the highest quality, no matter the size of the congregation. Every congregation will define “good music” differently. The key is that the once the congregation agrees on a style of music, whether vocal or instrumental it must settle for nothing less than the best in the service of worshiping God.

It’s easier to preach from a rooftop, kiss a pig in church or offer popcorn and good coffee than it is to offer consistently strong preaching in the context of worshiping with integrity. But the latter will build stronger churches. One could add a strong sense of mission and justice to this list, too. People are attracted to what is authentic.

Contact columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].