Reason for Church Services

[Esaias]

We are told to "Go", to take the gospel OUT THERE into the world. The church isn't "for" believers, it IS the believers.

Part of our problem has been the idea that our gatherings are for evangelism. Thus the church becomes devoted to "attraction" of people instead of proclamation of the gospel. And thus we turn the church into a franchise trying to sell a better Jesus than the other McChurches in town. Instead of witnessing we satisfy ourselves with "inviting people to church". We focus on flowers in the foyer and pads on the pews and dressing up the building to appeal to folks. We design our music NOT to please our holy God but to allure people and "move" people. We preach less of God's Truth and more of our pop psychology to make folks feel good about coming to OUR precious little corner of the religious market. Why? So we can get the most people to come, and get 'em coming back, and build our great big fancy kingdom, and so we can feel good about ourselves even though we hardly ever speak to our neighbors (let alone witness to them).

I'm all for evangelistic meetings. But "build it and they will come" is a line from Hollywood, not holy Scripture. When our worship is designed to entice the lost into loving our God (and us ...) it will sooner or later get off track and perveted into marketing gimmicks.

As the TEMPLE of God our purpose is service to God. We should be more outward directed in our evangelism. Sinners see us for what we've become: Jesus salesmen peddlin our particular brand of religion... no different than anyone else.

That preacher you mentioned, he's got it all wrong though, think that's obvious.

But regardless, what did they do in scripture? Does our model match theirs? If not, why not?