“We are a group of disciples who meet to encourage one another in following Christ and helping others become his disciples.”
Would you want to join that group? What about:
“We are a family friendly church who meet each Sunday for coffee and a worship service which includes a great kids church.”
By now you may want to write your own statement. What should we write? Some combination of the above? How much should we appeal to people’s self-interest and how much should we centre the description on Christ and his mission?
It depends on what we think church is. Is it a kind of service agency that provides things for people? To some extent it does do that. But is it over-extended in that direction? Is it really the body of Christ? Is it essentially a coming together of Christ’s people who meet in order to edify one another? Essentially, Yes.
And the outsiders? Should it not appeal to them too? Here is a big dilemma. Is the church for the believers or the unbelievers, or could it be for both? Essentially, in the New Testament, the church meets to build itself up.
But what about worship? The New Testament does not use “worship” as code for what Christians do when they meet. It had quite different and important meanings. The first Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.” (Acts 2.42). That’s what they did when they met. That is why they met.
The church is a body that meets to build up its members, not an organisation that provides services for those who wish to avail themselves of it. That is why we don’t attend church, we belong to it and meet with it
Dale