a journey

As a pastor, one of the consuming questions with which I wrestle is “Why don’t people go to church?” In particular, the question is “Why don’t people come to my church?” If you doubt that people are opinionated, ask this question to a group of church people on a Wednesday night. I’ve studied church growth for several years, and I have a number of opinions about the matter myself. But, I wonder if we are asking the right question to the wrong people. Several researchers in the last few years have begun asking people who don’t attend church why they don’t attend church, and the answers are interesting. George Barna asked this question and provided the answers in his book, Grow Your Church from the Outside In . The top five reasons that people gave for not attending church comprise 83% of the reasons why people don’t come to church. 1. No time; schedule conflicts; working 26% 2. Not interested; nothing to offer; no reason 16% 3. Don’t know 15% 4. My beliefs are different than the church’s

I love watching nature shows on Animal Planet, the Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel, etc. Shark Week sans the evolutionary mumbo jumbo is usually quite exhilarating. It is simply fascinating to learn the intricate details of thousands of animals and to bask in the awe of God’s creativity and wisdom. Recently, I learned that if you hit a shark on the nose (snout) there is a good chance it will leave you alone. I’m hoping I never get a chance to test that theory. With all of the amazing animals that God has created, I think the most amazing are the Homo sapiens. We have the ability to study other animals and influence the lives of all of the other animals. We have great capacity to think (notice I said capacity) and ponder the great questions of existence. I mean, you never see a depressed shark moping around wondering if he will ever be able to program his remote control. Ultimately, we want to know what the meaning of life is. We want to know why we