Making It Difficult For People Turning To God

This is on my desk:

These words constantly challenge me to evaluate everything we do. And they force me to ask the question, “How are we (Browns Bridge Community Church and Ministry Services) making it difficult for people who are turning to God?”

You can’t just ask this once a year or once a month. You must ask it constantly. You have to make it a default thought. Our (as individuals and churches) natural tendency is to think and act like insiders…people who have already turned to God. We must fight to not become insider focused. Why? When we become insider focused, we stop thinking about people who are turning to God…outsiders…and start thinking about people who are like us…insiders.

Spiritually speaking, I’m successful. You know what I mean. I’ve turned to God. I have a relationship with my Heavenly Father. I want to set others up to be spiritually successful. We don’t want to make it difficult for people who are turning to God. That doesn’t mean watering anything down, but it does mean removing any obstacles we have put up.

So, in my world, what do we need to be constantly evaluating? When we ask, “How are we making it difficult for people who are turning to God?”, what are we thinking about?

1. Systems. How we move people through our church. The hoops we make people jump through. How people get from Point A to Point B. Your systems can make it just as difficult for someone turning to God as a poorly led worship environment.

2. People. The right people in the right places makes all the difference in the world. It may be difficult to admit it, but having someone in the wrong role could make it difficult for people turning to God. This applies to staff and volunteers.

3. Setting. Signage. Building layout. Traffic flow. Parking. You’d better believe these things can make it difficult for someone turning to God. These things can be major distractions and force people to think about things other than God.

I know we don’t cause life-change. God does that. And I know the greatest difficulty for people turning to God is our enemy: 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” But we certainly can partner with God to do our part in creating systems and environments that don’t get in the way of people turning to God.