my least favorite tv show

Everybody loves Grey's Anatomy, except me. I can't stand to watch it. I think that a MADD TV spoof summed it up best in this line where one of the Drs says "I've been so focused on relationships that I've forgotten how to practice medicine." In walks House MD to save the day. I think that that's the problem I have with it, it is so focused on the affairs, loves, love triangles, etc of the doctors and nurses that I tune out. Does that make me insensitive?

I think that is what makes me often tune out of church as well. We focus on all this stuff that doesn't really make a difference for the Kingdom of God. Honestly, how will another committee meeting or political squabble in the church get us closer to fulfilling our mission? Sure, it's juicy. Sure, it feels good to get inside information and choose sides. I think that our line could be "We've been thinking about power and politics so much we've forgotten how to be the church that Jesus began." Who gets the most pie? Who gets the recognition? Who gets to sit on the right and left side of Jesus?

Matt 20:23 Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”

How do we fix it?

Let's not worry about non-essential things while people around us die. We have the life-giving Word, the Means of God's Grace right in our hands. Let's not forget how to use them.

talking to the people who don't go to church

Explain what you mean. When we ask the unchurched why they don't come to church, the number one complaint is they can't understand what's going on or what preachers are saying. We try to make no assumptions about what visitors will understand, and we work hard to talk the language of those unfamiliar with church.

Explain why. Postmoderns resist directive-type communication. A sermon that starts off with an authoritative statement about how people ought to behave turns them off. I've found it works better to speak persuasively, sometimes taking twice as long to explain a point. "If you believe this, so-and-so occurs; if you believe that, such-and-such happens."

From the book Growing Your Church Through Evangelism and Outreach.