In one of the Facebook groups I’m in, someone had this to say, when trying to figure out how to market their church in a city of bigger churches:

“…many of them are bigger and have all the stuff to attract all the people.”

So, what attracts people to church? Sadly a lot of what people use to attract people to church has nothing to do with God whatsoever. The “big attractions” that we use for church are really just big attractions that work for the world and we just try to Christianize them.

We focus on relationships with other people who share similar interest – so do cults and social clubs. We focus on having a good kid’s department – so do schools. We focus on having great live music – so do bars. We focus on having a great youth department – so do gangs. We focus on having great light shows and stage presence – so did Marilyn Manson, Ozzy Osbourne, and every other heathen rock musician. We focus on great graphics and images – so do politicians, sports teams, and strip clubs. We focus on having great buildings that look nice and modern – so do banks and entertainment venues.

But do you know what none of those places has that the church has – the life changing, miracle working power of God.

When some of those places have the demonic spirits drawing people in, calling to them to fulfill the lusts of the flesh – the church has the Holy Spirit that grows out limbs, creates new eyeballs, and sets people free from bondages that no man-made program can do.

And yet a good portion of the church world wants to focus on all the things that the world does better, and try and bring it into the church to give it a Christian spin. Instead, we should be focusing on the one thing that the world and everything in the world cannot give an individual – the power of God.

But here’s the problem. The power of God takes sacrifice. It takes dying to self from the leadership down. It takes putting away the entertainment and the desires of the flesh and soul, and crucifying those things and seeking after the things of God. It takes putting away the plans of man, the ways of the world and seeking God until you have an answer and then acting on that in faith.

It’s not easy. There’s proof in that by how few churches actually focus on the power of God. Many like to take the easy way out, just wrapping up things that are already done for them and putting their church’s name on it. But the world isn’t going to change, the last great move of God isn’t going to come to the earth, until the church puts down the ways of the world and picks up the ways of God. The world already knows how to offer people everything that the church does – except for the power of God. They don’t have it. They can never get it. Let’s focus on that, instead of all the garbage we’re trying to imitate with a Christian label.