Is Your Church Too Attractional?

The primary draw of church should always be hearing from God, not about any other attraction.   ~~~   In 1 Samuel 7:5 Samuel calls all of Israel to join him for a corporate prayer time. The people show up, they confess their collective sin, they fast, going without food or water, symbolically saying that God’s favor upon them was more important than water and food in them. But I want you to notice what else is taking place here. Prayer is not only the people confessing their sin, crying out to God, but is also God speaking to the people. Notice that the text says that “Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.” When we see that word, “judged,” we do not need to have in our minds that Samuel was behind a desk in a long robe dropping the gavel deciding cases. That is not the idea, but rather that Samuel was bringing the word of God to light for the people, to bear on their situation at hand, and Samuel was bringing the people’s word before God. So prayer is today, that we speak to God, and He speaks to us through His Spirit-Inspired word. On the surface of it, church can seem kind of boring can’t it?—prayer and preaching and praise. Where is the excitement, the carnival, the game-like atmosphere? “How can I get my friends here if there is no attractional qualities?” You mean to tell me that the God of the universe speaking isn’t attractional enough? And that we get to speak to Him? And praise Him? What else might we dare put in the place of those? Hearing from God is not at all boring, neither should it be made to be boring. It is only boring to those who do not know who God is, or who have closed their ears to Him. Speaking to God is nothing short of exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, except to those who view God as a genie who gets things right only 3 out of ten times in their estimation.