Church guests need to heal their wounds.
People come to God in times of personal crisis. [ref]
This pattern emerges time and again when you talk to people who come to your church for the first time and share why they decided to visit. Often, they find themselves dealing with major life transitions, anything from moving to a new town to starting a new job or becoming a parent for the first time. They could very well be experiencing marital stress or some kind of self-realization around hurt from years ago.
Is your church positioning itself to help people with the habits, hurts, and hang-ups that they bring to the table? We all experience different levels of pain in different seasons of our lives, but if we consistently ignore the pain that people bring, our church won’t be the kind of church that thrives and grows.
Church guests need to improve themselves.
People want to be better.
They’re looking to improve the way they interact with the world around them. They’re looking for support and guidance in becoming kinder, gentler people who make a difference in the lives of others. There’s this weird paradox within our society that pushes us towards a self-centered approach to life, but humans have an intrinsic understanding that the way to a fulfilling life is through caring for other people.
People come to your church because they want to help others. This is critically important, particularly as we see increasingly effective churches find ways to get people out of their seats and into the streets to make a difference in their communities. This is a need that people have, and fulfilling that need is one way to connect with your broader community.
Church guests need to expand their friendships.
People are experiencing loneliness at epidemic levels. More than twice as many people self-identify as lonely than a generation ago. [ref]
People do lie awake at night and wonder if they have any true connections or community. One irony emerging from the digitalization of social relationships is that we have increased connection with those at the fringe of our social networks, yet we have a decreasing number of high-quality, intimate friendships because of the amount of time and effort we invest in social media.
People look at the church as a place to make connections, to get to know other people, and to find friends. If your church appears cold and distant, it won’t be the kind of place where people will want to build meaningful connections. People want to attend churches that are warm and engaging.
Your church needs to fulfill what church guests need.
In some ways, I think we need to get beyond the attractional church discussion. It’s a straw man because it suggests that there is a segment of churches that are frankly just asking the question, “What does our community need and how do we fulfill those needs?” as if it were a marketing trick. The reality is that Jesus consistently started with people’s needs and then drew them closer to himself, pointing them to a faith that would make a difference.
What elements of your ministry do you need to change to help fulfill these five needs? Is there something going on in your ministry that doesn’t meet the real needs of people in your community? I’d love to hear your comments below.
This article originally appeared here.
