Simply Irresistible

The first time I heard this combination of words was last summer as I was preparing to work with the middle school of a massive church in Atlanta.

(Aside: Yes its me back from a weeks worth of craziness in the teaching world of US History)

I was taught last summer that it is our role to make the church seem irresistible. Students, singles, and married folk of all kinds should step into church and feel welcomed. They should see a church that is more appealing than going to a grand opening of an Ikea on a Sunday morning. As someone who was specializing in creative arts, my part of making things irresistible is providing videos, a setting, or lighting that will engage the audience. Provide mediums for people to feel safe and focused in on what the topic for the week has chosen to be.

Since my internship, I have learned quite a lot. That church is reaching thousands of middle to upper class white people. This is the culture that this church, and its campuses, are surrounded by. They are doing what they set out to do, and they are doing it well.

I am, however, starting to question if making things irresistible in this way is the way I see how church should be communicated to the cultures around us. Rob Bell, a pastor and teacher from Grand Rapids, Michigan, said that the church should be so ingrained with community around them that if they decided to leave the community will beg them to stay. I am starting to wonder if the church's "Presence" should be found less within a confined meeting space, but living, moving, and breathing among those around us.

During the week I am going to focus on three words: Come, See, Find. I think this is how I am going to start to wrap my mind around creating a gathering that is simply irresistible. The goal is to work out through this blog how a church's large gathering can be community oriented and focused while also providing a creative environment that is engaging to the culture at large. In the fourth post I will attempt to show how a church's gathering can be involved in the process of restoration that the Kingdom, thats us, has been called to do.