What if Starbucks Marketed Like a Church?

So a couple months ago my pastor played the following video before our Wednesday evening church service and I was reminded of it recently. I'm posting it here because it's true and because it's not a bad idea to change up your service once awhile by showing something like this. Right now some of you are going, "*Gasp* CHANGE!?!?" Yes change. It's a good thing. Notice I didn't say compromise your doctrines or Biblical principles.

My pastor preached that night on being a church. You see a church is not just some rotary club or hangout. It's a living, breathing organism called the Body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:12-13). Christ accepted all kinds of people with open arms. He told the disciples, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me:" (Matthew 19:14). We're to be kind (Ephesians 4:32) and to show love (Mark 12:31) so that we might bear one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2).

Sometimes we look at visitors as invading our club. "How dare they sit in my seat. That's my seat." ...Don't look at me and tell me that you've never done that. I'll be the first to raise my hand. I'm guilty. Or we look at them as outcasts. "Look at that guy's clothes. Looks like he just came in from off the farm. Eww...and he smells like it too." How do you treat the guests of your church? Do they feel loved and leave with a desire to come back because they finally found a place where they can belong? Or do they make for the exit as soon as the pastor says "Amen" hoping they never have to darken the door of that church again?

Did this video made you think a little bit? Maybe you'll remember this the next time you see a visitor. Maybe you'll remember this the next time you go out of town and you are the visitor. What's your goal as a church? Is it to stay as this exclusive club that no one is allowed into or is to win lost people to Christ and encourage fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to keep on serving God with all their heart?

Would you like to share this with your friends? Click the links below and remind each other that church is about Christ.

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