How Irresistible Is Your Church?

Orginally published on Tuesday, March 06, 2007 at 8:44 AM
by Leonard Lee

Okay, here is the way my mind works. It wakes up at 3:00 in the morning, about 2 hours before God gets up and begins to race. This happens 2-4 days a week. Sometimes I know for sure it is the Holy Spirit who is inviting me into a moment of friendship with Him, other times it could be blamed on the Nachos I ate at 10:00 the night before. This past week and I woke up with the song, Simply Irresistible, in my head. I am not sure if God is a Robert Palmer fan but since I did not have Nachos the night before, I wonder where the song came from. I decided to look up the lyrics on the web and when I did I had the following reflections. If you were to put the words and replace the woman part with the church, you would have a pretty good goal as to the kind of church you wanted to build.

How can it be permissible
She compromise my principle, yeah yeah
That kind of love is mythical
She’s anything but typical

Wow, would it be great to build an irresistible church that causes old principles to be compromised because of love that so mythical, or in my words legendary?  The church that can do this wins. 

Her loving is so powerful, huh
It’s simply unavoidable
The trend is irreversible
The woman is invincible

How amazing it would be to be a part of a church that actually draws people because of the love within, a love that irreversibly alters the course of a life making that new life and love invincible?  The church that can do this wins.

She’s unavoidable, I’m backed against the wall
She gives me feelings like I never felt before
I’m breaking promises, she’s breaking every law
She used to look good to me, but now I find her …Simply irresistible

What if the church became this unavoidable force that if caused a choice in the lives of people?  What if it brought new life and with new life feelings never felt before?  What if the things we said we would never do, trust God, forgive others…began to take place because the influence of the church?  Someone might be tempted to say, she used to look good but now…Simply Irresistible.  The church that can do this wins.

So how irresistible is my church?  I sat in honest reflection and this is what I came up with.

For the churched person, who wants tradition we are totally resistible. (This is good news to me)
For the churched person who likes the edge we are mildly resistible. (It means I need to disciple people and cast vision)
For the un-churched person who is curious about God we are mildly resistible. (We are making progress in reaching un-churched people)
For the un-churched person who is suspicious of the church, doesn’t speak our language and wouldn’t come to us, we are totally resistible.  (We still have a long way to go)

I am excited to be a part of leading a church that is asking the question.  How can we become “Simply Irresistible” to others?  Our shortcomings here are much more a reflection of our need to keep pursuing than an adjustment to our aim.  Let me close this with a couple thoughts on what we think makes a church “Simply Irresistible.”

What makes a “Simply Irresistible?”
Love - Jesus said by this all men will know who you belong to…If you will love one another.
Unity – Jesus said Father, make them one so people will know I am real.
Truth – Jesus said you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
Compassion – Jesus said I have come to seek (find) and then to save (rescue) the lost.
On Purpose – Jesus told us that one day a farmer when out to sow… Nothing a good farmer does is by accident, good farmers do the following.

•They work the soil before they plant the seed.
•They study the seasons for maximum harvest.
•They remove obstacles from great soil.  Stumps, weeds, rocks…
•The place most of their seeds in good soil. (Very few fall in other places.)
•They water and work the ground, protecting the seeds that have been planted.
•They reap, they are not content to plant, they plant to reap.
•They work with others. 

P.S.  I know that Jesus is the answer and that the goal of the church is to introduce people to Jesus not to make people fall in love with itself.  However, God has chosen the church to reveal the mystery of God and if we smell bad, people will think Jesus smells bad, or worse that Jesus is too weak to redeem. 

For Discussion: How irresistible is your church to those outside of your church?  Do you or your leaders have a plan to reach more than just the curious?  How irresistible is your faith?  What do you do on purpose to plant and reap?

About the author:  Leonard Lee a regular commenter here at MMI.  He is also a church planter and a veteran of over 25 years of ministry.  He is married to his best friend and they have two awesome kids.  He currently pastors Bayside of Central Roseville and loves to hunt, fish and play.

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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.

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