January 2006 
 

Church Is For the Church  

Does the Bible really teach the aim of our worship is to attract unbelievers? 

Paul Tautges

 

With all the hype about creating “seeker-sensitive” services in today’s churches, you would almost think the Bible at least remotely suggests that worship gatherings are for unbelievers. Yet, that idea is strangely absent from the New Testament. In fact, only one passage acknowledges the presence of unbelievers in a public worship service and, when interpreted in its context, actually argues against the very premise that the entire church marketing movement is built upon: find out what unsaved people want and design your church accordingly.[i] The Apostle Paul wrote, 
   

Therefore if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all (1 Cor. 14:23, 24). 
 

Notice the emphasis: “If the church is gathered and unbelievers enter,” not, “Since the church has gathered in order to attract a large number of unbelievers.” What provoked Paul to write this was the glory-seeking Corinthians who were misusing the gift of tongues, the purpose of which was “for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers” (14:22). His point was to show them how ridiculous it would be for an unbeliever to come to their church only to watch a circus. Instead, they should have made the proclamation of God’s revelation (part of the gift of prophecy) the chief priority toward the edification of God’s people. “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God [the believer] may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17). 
 

In Corinth , prophets were given to edify believers by means of revelation. Now, God’s revelation is complete in the canonized Scriptures and the mode of revealing this truth to men is verbal proclamation of the text and meaning of Scripture by means of preaching and teaching. This is the Spirit’s primary tool for edification. When this takes place, and an unbeliever attends, the preaching will be used by the Spirit to convict. “Convicted” and “called to account” are two judicial words indicating that, by means of preaching, the Holy Spirit bears down on the mind of the unbeliever to show him that he is in error and, therefore, must repent. As a result, “the secrets of his heart are disclosed”, that is, the Holy Spirit exposes the heart by means of the Scriptures, so that “he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you” (1 Corinthians 14:25). 
 

Do you see the difference? If an unbeliever walked into the assembly at Corinth while everyone was speaking in tongues they would exclaim, “You are mad! Get me out of here!” However, if an unbeliever walked in while the Word was being preached, he would conclude, “Surely God is present here.” These two totally different outcomes result from two totally different priorities. One is to serve and glorify man by means of ear-tickling entertainment in the name of “worship,” and the other is to serve and glorify God by means of Word-saturated preaching.  
 

What all of this means for us is that every worship service should continue to have the glory of God as its utmost goal. The way to ensure this is to maintain the supremacy of preaching the Word. As a result, believers who attend faithfully will grow in their Christian faith, and unbelievers who “happen” to come in will be convicted by God’s truth, hear the hope of the Gospel, and will repent or flee. 
 

But this manner of thinking is not normally promoted by the church growth “experts” that tell me as a pastor to design non-offensive worship services to appeal to the unsaved or “unchurched” (a classification of people unknown to the biblical writers). I find it interesting that the apostles never wracked their brains trying to come up with ways to church the unchurched or attract unsaved people, but instead they focused on equipping believers toward maturity through preaching, instructing and preparing them to scatter outside the church to evangelize. 
 

One of the natural consequences of this “new” emphasis on attracting and pleasing the masses is a de-emphasis on biblical preaching. The reason for this is so obvious. Preaching, by its very nature, is authoritative, declarative, and confrontational. Preaching may request a verbal response from its listeners, but by no means requires it to be effective. It can be 100% effective even if every listener scoffs at the message. Entertainment, on the other hand, requires a positive response if it is ever to be deemed successful. This “need” for outward measurements of success has ushered in an entirely new way of doing church. Steven Lawson summarizes it well in his great little book, Famine in the Land, 
 

A new way of ‘doing’ church is emerging. In this radical paradigm shift, exposition is being replaced with entertainment, preaching with performances, doctrine with drama, and theology with theatrics. The pulpit, once the focal point of the church, is now being overshadowed by a variety of church-growth techniques, everything from trendy worship styles to glitzy presentations and vaudeville-like pageantries. In seeking to capture the upper hand in church growth, a new wave of pastors is reinventing church and repackaging the gospel into a product to be sold to ‘consumers.’ Whatever reportedly works in one church is being franchised out to various ‘markets’ abroad. As when gold was discovered in the foothills of northern California, so ministers are beating a path to the doorsteps of exploding churches and super-hyped conferences where the latest ‘strike’ has been reported. Unfortunately, the newly panned gold often turns out to be ‘fool’s gold.’ Not all that glitters is actually gold.[ii] 
 

The strange thing about the New Testament believers is they actually hungered for truth-saturated preaching; they actually liked it! Lawson writes of them, “There was no need for gospel gimmicks or spiritual sideshows to entice them to come, for these starving souls were craving the pure milk of the Word.”[iii] Modern-day church marketing gurus must think this is awfully strange, but in actuality, this is normal, biblical Chris tianity. 
 

When referring to the explosive growth in the second chapter of the book of Acts, Lawson notes, 
 

“…this ‘evangelism explosion’ was the result of their teaching, not the stated purpose of it. They gathered for edification; they scattered for evangelism. The primary focus of their corporate worship gatherings was for building up the believers, not for reaching seekers. When this priority becomes reversed and the church meets primarily to save the lost, the apostles’ teaching soon becomes compromised and diluted.”[iv] 
 

It is sad, but true, that “Too many preachers today bear more resemblance to entertainers than expositors, stand-up comics rather than knee-shaking servants.”[v] All the while, God’s truth and God’s church are severely compromised. 
 

Let me speak very plainly: seeker-sensitive church marketing is for lazy or misguided pastors. Let’s face it. Purchasing the latest 40-day program to “grow your church” is much easier than wrestling with the difficult meaning and application of biblical texts as they confront your own sinfulness for days, and sometimes weeks, before they ever touch the sin problems in the pew. And staying on your knees in prayer for your church is much more strenuous than following the latest trend.  

There is a choice to be made. Will church leaders in repeat the errors of the glory-seeking, carnal-minded Corinthians and turn their worship services into performances for man’s glory? Or will they wake up and realize that the church is for the church. That is, according to the Scriptures, the primary function of the corporate worship service is not to attract and entertain the unregenerate in order to soft-sell the gospel to them, but to consistently bring God’s people face to face with His revelation and glory in the Bible. The need of the hour is truth with a capital T. And the only biblically consistent way to keep that priority is faithful Bible exposition. Then when unbelievers enter our churches they will be pierced by the Spirit’s conviction and fall on their faces and worship God, declaring that God is surely among us. 
 

David Doran’s observation is correct, “the mission that Jesus Christ has given to His church cannot be fulfilled apart from the proclamation of the Word….the contemporary church is losing sight of this truth and many are losing the resolve to stand against this terrible tide.”[vi] May God continue to give us the grace to persevere in that which matters most. 
 

Pastor Paul