The pastor of a church in Chicago several years ago, wanting to challenge his parishioners to be more faithful in their worship attendance each Sunday morning, came up with a unique idea. He prepared the following letter to be mailed to every member of his church:
Dear church member,
This is to notify you that all church members are expected to attend worship services at least two Sundays each month. Although each of you stated upon joining our church that you would support it with your regular presence, a large number of you do not. In these turbulent times we must have a church comprised of loyal church members. Half-hearted church members simply will not do. Therefore, registration will be taken each Sunday morning to determine which names remain in good standing on our membership roll. If you have some legitimate reason why you cannot comply, please inform the church office.
Sincerely yours,
Your Pastor
If your church were to send a letter like this to its members, what would be your reaction? If continued membership depended on attending two Sundays every month, how do you think other members would respond? Would you think the idea to be preposterous? Overly demanding? Inconsiderate? And noticing that the letter was your pastor’s idea, how would it affect your relationship with him?
What I call self-appointed “Church Parking Lot Committee” discussions would probably increase immediately. And telephone lines would stay warm in the days following. Some members would likely think, “It will only drive people away to other churches that do not have such an expectation of its members.”
No, your church is not likely to send out such a letter to its members. If it were to do so, the sad fact is that many of its members would be satisfied with things as they are — even though attendance is far less than it should be. Accepting the status quo is way ahead of “rocking the boat” or “stirring up a hornet’s nest.”
This letter, believe it or not, was mailed to the members of the St. James United Methodist Church in Chicago. It may surprise you that the members didn’t get upset and ask their Bishop to reassign their pastor. They didn’t respond with either consternation or anger. Instead, the letter worked. It achieved its objective. Attendance the following year was 56 percent higher than it was in the year before the letter was mailed.
Churches make a big mistake when they ask too little of their members. If God loved every person in the world enough to send His Son to die on a Roman cross to pay the penalty for our sins, we must know that accepting Him as Savior also means accepting Him as Lord of our daily lives. It is through regular worship, both personal and corporate, that we are prepared to become witnesses to others in our community.
First century Christians certainly realized this. Josephus, the Jewish historian of that day, referred to them as “those who are turning the world upside down.” An empty tomb proves Christianity; an empty church denies it. The mission Jesus assigned to His followers is to tell the story of His love. No church can get very many lost sinners prepared to go to heaven if it can’t even get its members out of bed on Sunday morning.
Any church member who expects to answer when the roll is called “up yonder” should make an effort be present on a regular basis in church on Sunday morning when the roll is called “down here.”
The Paper Pulpit 
Leave a Reply