For about a year I attended a church where exactly the same thing would happen every Sunday. Perhaps you know what I am talking about. Perhaps you're in such a church right now.
We would be greeted at the door with a smile and a program. Shortly after taking our seat, the band would begin it's 30 minute show. I say "show" because the musicians were skilled enough and the songs were nice, but true praise and worship wasn't evident. O, a few would try, but it became an exercise in futility. The pastor wasn't even present for this "worship time" and those on stage seemed bored with the whole matter.
After the music came a short break for coffee and donuts. This appeared to be the favorite part of the Sunday morning ritual to most attending. Then the pastor came in with his weekly message. Nice words....funny jokes, but even he seemed disinterested in what he was saying. He used a scripture or two to try to support some philosophical concept (yawn) and then ended with a short prayer and out the door everyone went, not any different than when they arrived. God didn't show up for the service......No one noticed His absence, nor did they really care. The people were becoming very adept at having church without any help at all from the Lord. Everyone was comfortable.
In Psalm 69 we read, "the zeal of God's house has consumed me". This is what is missing in most churches today. A "zeal" and a "hunger" for God. A fervent zeal for His house. An old preacher once said, "If you are not hungry for God, then you are backslidden".
Do you have a hunger that can only be satisfied by God? I believe that He is longing for those who long for Him. He is waiting for a few hungry people to get together and seek His face until the Real Deal walks through the door. These folks are not ashamed of the Holy Spirit. They don't seek the approval of men, they seek an audience with the King!
The Psalmist said, "my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God". A. W. Tozer wrote about this in a book called, "The Pursuit Of God". In that book, he wrote, "To have found God and still pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love, justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart".
My friends, the secret is not in attracting men to church. No, it is in attracting the Holy Presence of the living God to our assemblies. If God shows up on Sunday morning, we won't have to attract men.....He will.
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