The Secret to Enjoying Church

By now you know I am a pastor and I love the church.  I am also frustrated by the church, in awe of the church, curious about the church, after all it is my life’s work and calling.  I have found that I can be successful in building a church and church work and unsuccessful at being a follower of Jesus.  I get this and work very hard to not be a church person, but a disciple of Jesus who follows Jesus into the church.  The church remains the best place to grow spiritually, however there is one secret to being able to grow in the church.

Let me take a step back and say I have had multiple conversations, with people in multiple cities in multiple denominations and all of them are frustrated at church.  In fact I can count on my hand the number of conversations I have had with people in my life who were jazzed about their church.

I have heard critiques on pastors, preaching, Sunday school, small group, youth leaders, children’s ministries, building, bathrooms, sound systems...you name it I have heard people complain about it (and to be honest I have complained about church as well).  Yet I still firmly believe that being connected to and committed to a local church is the primary place Jesus would have us grow spiritually.  That is if you know the one secret.

Church is not supposed to be a perfect place.  We may think it is, but it is not; it is a gathering of sinful, messed up people (even the ones that have been there forever, sometimes especially these dear ones) trying to figure out how to relate to God and the world.  Church is messy, church is frustrating, church is a laboratory for learning how to get free from sin.  Church is not supposed to run smoothly, be entertaining, or even meet our needs. I still have not given you the secret to being able to ‘keep on keepin on’ at church.  Most of the pastors I know, and I know a lot are great people who care deeply about the churches and the people they serve.  They take the criticism and brunt of the responsibility for the failure of the church, even though they should not.  If you have ever looked at your pastor’s job description you would see that it is an impossible task and no person who was in their right mind would agree to do or be able to do all the tasks listed.  I guess I am saying that the pastor or ministers are not the secret to being able to grow in the church (and smile while doing it).

Are you ready for the secret?  This goes for me, you, I, he, they, us, we (you get the idea).  This is a universal fact, a truth, something you can take to the bank that applies 100% of the time.  The secret to growing spiritually in church is...each time I walk into the church I prayerfully ask God this question.

How can I serve You and love Your people today?

There it is, if I do this before every meeting, every worship service, every pot-luck, every small group I will 100% of the time find fulfillment.  Why because the very word worship is to serve, and when I position myself as a servant of God a wonderfully mysterious thing happens, God in turn meets my need.  Quit going to church because it meets your needs and meets your families needs (church is not supposed to be wal-mart).  In fact find a little church that is struggling, and go join it (unless you have a ton of baggage that is the last thing a tiny, struggling church needs, we can talk about that later) and start serving.  There are tons of churches who need people to serve, need to be revitalized, need worshipers who enter saying, ‘God, how can I serve you and your people here today?’  Try it, I dare you!