A conversation I recently had with a friend has me thinking. It has me thinking a lot actually.

I made some comment on Facebook questioning the type of people our churches are "attracting." He politely said, "the church isn't for the unsaved anyway."

It sounded crazy at first, but after he explained himself, it started to make a lot of sense. It all stems from the definition of "church." And by definition, the church is simply a group of people who have faith in Jesus. By that, an unbeliever cannot be part of the church, because faith is a prerequisite for inclusion. 

That being said, I wonder if we're going about how we do our "church services" all wrong.

I have been in church my entire life and the whole time I have viewed the gathering of believers ("church") as a place that was supposed to be geared toward making unbelievers feel welcome. In fact, the thing today is to make the Sunday morning service "relevant" to unbelievers and welcoming. The idea is for believers to invite their unbelieving friends to that gathering so they will in turn accept the gospel at that event.

But, when you consider the fact church is for believers, it throws a kink in that concept.

If church is a body of believers, why would the primary gathering for those believers be taylored for people who aren't supposed to come anyway?

I mean seriously, why would we expect someone who doesn't know Christ to come to a worship service and "enjoy the music"? Christians are worshiping a "dead" Jewish guy who claimed to be the Messiah! Why would anyone other than someone who claimed to be regenerated by God want to experience that?

You might be thinking the same question I had: "How then do we share the gospel if we're not supposed to use Sunday morning as a place for unbelievers to attend?"

A very valid question. In answering this, it's important to look at the biblical role for church leadership.

Ephesians 4:11-12 says God has gifted some people with different leadership roles "to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up."

Hmm.

So according to Paul, it's not the institutional church's "job" to share the gospel. It's each individual member's job. The leaders of the church are supposed to build up believers to go out and share the gospel. It says nothing about inviting people into our meetings in hopes they will respond to an altar call there. It says just the opposite.

The Bible never says it's the pastor's job, deacon's job, elder's job, or worship leader's job to share the gospel with unbelievers. It says it's the Christian's job. That includes pastors, deacons, edlers, and other offices held in church, but it includes every believer too.

And my friend, based on how I'm thinking these days, and the verses that talk about who the church is, that is supposed to happen outside the walls of the church.

Here are a few problems I see with making the Sunday morning worship service (or any other worship service) geared toward converting unbelievers:

• Worship's primary purpose changes from glorifying God to entertainment, making it more about a slick production than anything else
• It discourages believers from becoming true fishers of men
• It encourages believers and unbelievers alike to become consumers
• It blurs the lines between a true disciple and curious follower
• Style and image become very, very important (too important)

In saying this, I need to point out I don't see anything in the Bible or in early church history that suggests unbelievers should not be allowed to attend a gathering of followers of Jesus. In the early church, curious unbelievers were allowed to attend, but merely as spectators, not as ones participating. They were welcomed to attend, but they were asked to leave during the sacraments.

The scary thing is, I don't really know what this type of gathering is supposed to look like. What do you do if you're not supposed to make it appealing to unbelievers? What kind of music do you play? Do you have it in a set aside building? Do you have it on Sunday? 

I'm not through thinking about this. I'm very excited about what it looks like though. What are your thoughts?

Jacob