Sometimes the Church Keeps People From Coming to Christ

We have all heard pastors tell these types of stories. Many times they come across as one of those "preacher stories" that may have been embelished to make it more powerful. Unfortunately, most of these types of stories are true (and actually, since pastors are telling them, they should always be true, otherwise, the integrity of the speaker is harmed.)

Nevertheless, I was told of a troubling instance this week that occurred in a local church.

It seems that a family had been asking their new neighbors to come visit their church. That's the Christian thing to do, right? We talk about this relational evangelistic effort all the time. In this case, the new neighbors decided to give the church a try. They woke early on Sunday morning, made their way to the church in time for the worship service. They came into the worship center and found a seat.

It wasn't long before a man came to them. They expected him to introduce himself and welcome them to the church. However, in this case, the man immediately told them they were in "his seat."

So, the couple arose and went to another seat.

It wasn't long before another person came to them.

Yep, you guessed it. The same thing happened. They were once again told they were in someone's seat.

Nevertheless, the family found another seat. They stayed through the service. However, they made it clear to their neighbors they would never again attend this church.

I heard this story and just couldn't believe it. 

What makes this story so terrible is that it is true.

What even worse is that this happened at my church, First Baptist Church of Orange Park, within the last month or so.

I don't know if the family that visited would be reading my blog, but if so, please accept my apology. There is no excuse for this and I am deeply sorry. 

I pray that this family will either come back to First Baptist again or at least find another church in our area that preaches the gospel and lives it out where they can worship in and serve regularly. I don't know if this family knows Christ personally. I shudder to think that a barrier to hearing the Gospel has been built now. Nevertheless, I trust God in His sovereignty to continue to draw these and others to himself. I just never want to become a barrier to Gospel.

I fully realize that the church member (and I have no idea who it was) may read this post. Please understand that I love you in Christ, but your actions that day were so blatantly and terribly wrong. You may have some nice reasons or excuses for saying such a thing, but the fact of the matter is that these excuses do not hold water. I am not trying to embarrass you and I get that by "calling you out" (recognizing that I will never know who you are unless you let me know) may anger you. That's OK. As my mother-in-law says "You can just get glad in the same pants you got mad in." :-) 

Unfortunately, this type of self-centeredness is not rare. In fact, all of us, and I mean all of US (that includes me) - even good, mission-minded, missional-living, Great Commission-focused believers can easily slide into a "me-first" religious mentality.

We cannot say we love Jesus and others in His name, while at the same time living like the church was created for us. If His name is to be glorified, it is to be glorified in all areas of our lives. . .even church.

I fully acknowledge that the vast majority of members and attenders at First Baptist would never say or do such a thing as described above. I know this because I see how God is working and transforming lives. I see how we, as a church body, have willingly set aside our own desires and preferences to better reach this community. I know this because of the audible gasp that was heard when one of our deacons shared this story.

Oh, by the way, this Sunday we will be observing the Lord's Supper. It's a time for remembering what Christ has done for us through his death and sacrifice on the cross. If you come into the building and someone is sitting where you normally do, introduce yourself and shake their hand. . .then go find somewhere else to sit. Otherwise, if you move people out of "your" seat, you have most likely just disqualified yourself from partaking of the Lord's Supper this day.

Comments

[Concnered Member]

This is horrible. It makes me mad.

[Diane]

It's sad that it happened to a visitor but it also happened a member. It was on a Wednesday night dinner I sat a an "empty" table and church member came up and basically said that table was where they sit and I needed to move. It's truly sad when Christians forget they are never First. All i could think a out is what if i had been a guest/visitor. Thankful that this is not the norm for the majority of our church family. This situation breaks my heart. Prayers are going up.

[Donna]

Are you kidding me? I mean, once is bad enough, but twice?? It is hard to imagine that of all the seats in the sanctuary, this family would find two seats that someone would do that. What are the odds and with that in mind, I wonder how many others would have done the same. I am speechless. I have tears in my eyes and I am so sorry this happened. I am also embarrassed and I pray that whoever it was WILL read your blog. I just do not understand this at all and as you said, the majority of the people at our church would never do this. I also feel really bad for whoever it was that invited this family to church. How would you explain that?