Why won’t unbelievers come to church?

Sin. The real question is, our sin or theirs? It has become fashionable, and perhaps always was, for some believers to blame other believers for unbelievers choosing to be unbelievers. When Bill Hybels, building Willow Creek into one of the first mega-churches, sent pollsters door to door through Chicago neighborhoods asking people why they didn’t go to church they found a fairly narrow list of objections. Church, many said, was not relevant. Church was always asking for money. Church was boring. People in church were hypocrites and judgmental. They’d been hurt by someone in church in their past.

Do you notice anything missing? No one answered, “Because there I’d encounter the God I am in rebellion against.” There are at least two possible reasons that answer never came up. Either they’d never encountered God in church, or they had, and in their rebellion, didn’t like it.

The church is indeed full of sinners. It is crawling with hypocrites and the judgmental. The reason for that is simple enough- all people are hypocritical and judgmental, and the church is full of people. The church hurts people for the same reason, because people hurt people and the church is full of people.

Because we are all sinners the solution isn’t to no longer sin. Instead the solution is to recognize that the message of the church is the solution to our sin. The church is that place where sinners gather to learn about, celebrate and praise the one sinless man who gave us, as we acknowledge our sin and His life and death for us, peace with the living God. It is where we meet with Him.

Could there be anything less boring, or anything more relevant? On the other hand, could there be anything more useless than seeking to bring unbelievers into church through mimicking their music, their language, their ideologies? Unbelievers don’t need more of what they already have. The last thing they need is to be made to feel comfortable. Welcome, yes. Loved, of course. Comfortable? By no means.

The silly trope that the problem with the church is that it’s just not hip enough is a lie from the pit. Big screens, skinny jeans, and fog machines are not only not the gospel, but are distractions from it. More swear words, more wokeness, more comedy do not reveal the glory of Christ but expose the hunger for approval of His pathetic sheep.

Should the church seek greater obedience to the Lord? Of course. Our sinfulness is something to be repented of, turned from. What we ought not to do is flaunt it, to make unbelievers feel more welcome. Should we act better than we are? Of course not. We repent of our sin. We don’t deny it or hide from it. We confess it, in shame. May unbelievers come to know that church is where sin is exposed, and when repented of, completely and utterly forgiven. The only freedom anyone has from condemnation is at the foot of the cross.

Why won’t unbelievers come to church? Because as yet they don’t believe. What they need is not a comfortable place to stay in their sin, but the proclamation of the blood of Christ to cover our sin.