Here’s the counter-argument to yesterday’s post. When arguing for an insider focus to our church assemblies, I referred to 1 Corinthians 14. Yet in that passage, Paul also makes a point about considering outsiders:

“So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and some who do not understand or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind? But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”” (1 Corinthians 14:23–25)

Paul envisions a situation where an outsider comes into the assembly, seemingly on their own. Our services need to be aware of that possibility as well.

Think about it. We advertise our church services on signs and sometimes in paid publicity. We often include some sort of “Come join us!” message. We’re inviting outsiders; shouldn’t we treat them as welcome guests?

In our society, most people have some concept of “going to church.” Many have had relatives that go to church, if they haven’t gone themselves. They understand “going to church” as a way of interacting with Christianity. If they are going to seek God, for many of them the first step will be to find a church service to attend.

It’s my point of view that the healthiest church services have a body focus while trying to make them something intelligible and attractive to outsiders. However, some churches thrive on the “seeker-focused” mentality. Their invitations to outsiders are “come join us at church”; evangelism centers around getting people in to hear a powerful message from the preacher. As we’ve seen, a case can be made for that.