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“Church Furniture Causes Church Growth”

Orginally published on Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 7:58 AM
by Todd Rhoades

Now this is interesting. Now the pew advocates are suggesting that we should make people 'comfortable' so they will come back. "Furniture does not make a church grow, the Holy Spirit does. However, many... seem to agree that when the pews are padded and comfortable it could very well encourage people to attend services especially if there are people attending who have difficulty sitting comfortably."

The moral of this story… even those who have ‘difficulty sitting comfortably’ need to know Christ; and they should be able to sit comfortably while listening to the King James.

Those against anything innovative in churches say that we are just ‘tickling ears’ to make people comfortable.  It would appear that some, however, are willing to tickle people’s, well, you get the picture, to make they comforable.

A chair or pew is no different than music, drama, video, style, location, service time, etc.  They are all just delivery systems/methods.

The truth, however, stays the same.

Here’s the whole story in case you’d like to read it...

Any thoughts?

About the Author: Todd Rhoades is the Managing Editor and Publisher of MondayMorningInsight.com (MMI as most of us know it). Besides spending a good amount of time maintaining this website, Todd is on the staff of Leadership Network, helping large churches to better connect, innovate, and multiply what they do best. Todd was also the founder of ChurchStaffing.com, until he sold the site in 2005. Todd lives with his wife, Dawn, and four children in Bryan, OH. He can be reached at .


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  There are 5 Comments:

  • Posted by

    They are just as guilty of forsaking truth for comfort - making “reaching out to connect” more important than the truths of God.  Is it ok to have different styles, music, videos, and drama?  Of course.  It is the same failure mode that you don’t think is happening in the church growth movement - God said to care about others and that is what traditional church has not done, so we will replace the pleasing of God with the pleasing of others.  God never told us to forsake His relationship because He told us to care about others.  And those traditional churches sitting their bums on these comfortable chairs are just as guilty for not fulfilling the great commission.

  • Posted by Leonard

    There is an old saying; The mind can absorb no more than the seat can endure.  Hey Joe, the whole phrase is reaching out to connect and redeem.

  • Posted by

    Wonder what would happen if there were no chairs or pews??? Thinkin’ outloud again. smile

    Oh! Have some friends who attend a church that used to meet in a movie theatre. They’d rather have chairs or pews than stadium seating. Why? They were tempted to go to sleep because they were so comfortable. Well, and also because it was dark inside the theatre even with the lights on.

  • Posted by

    Camey.

    Eastern Orthodox. No seats in many of them…

    We live in such a sedentary culture (so different than that of the first century) which affects how long we can sit and listen in a chair that drives our bodies crazy…

    I think it’s a GREAT point that we need decent seats if we want folks to fill them.

  • Posted by

    Ah, Peter. Thanks for letting me know that. BTW: In class, I teach sitting on the floor with my shoes off. In worship service, however, I sit in a chair when expected to. Not necessarily because I want to though. lol

    The woman who sits in front of us almost every Sunday has health issues. She has a friend who brings her to church. He would not be attending church period if it were not for her. She would not be attending church if she could not handle sitting in the chairs. We’re thankful our chairs are comfortable.

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