We have been attending this Biblically sound church now for some years. The teaching is amazing and accurate. The leaders have announced that they will change the Saturday evening worship service to include more upbeat music (admitting it will sound louder) and occasionally include lasers and smoke during the worship. My problem is that, even though their motives seem to be that they want to attract more young people, I can’t help but think that this is appealing to the flesh, and not allowing the Holy Spirit to draw them to himself. Young people already hear this stuff in the world, and we don’t need to duplicate it in the church. Should we try to attract young people (as the Church has been trying to do for over 20 years now) at any cost and by any method?
Sadly, we have entered the age of church as entertainment, and unless some people feel like they’re being entertained they won’t come, even to hear good teaching. These days there’s a lot of pressure on pastors to increase attendance, but many don’t realize that those who come just to be entertained don’t really belong there in the first place.
In Mexico where I live the big thing is free food. To build attendance some pastors hand out bags of food. But most of them can’t keep it up forever and when they stop, the attendance goes down again.
It’s not the number of people we bring into a church service that matters, it’s the number of people we bring into the Kingdom. If we put Him in charge, the Holy Spirit can bring the people who need to be there.