I tend to be one of those “data driven” types.  You know the kind – they only believe what they can experience.  Which means I have a hard time believing outrageous stories.  So despite all the evidence, despite all the eyewitness testimony, I simply couldn’t believe the stories I heard.  But now I can assure you, it’s all true.  It really is that difficult to switch your cable TV package.   (All it took was talking to 8 people to get my cable working.)

Every time I was blindly transferred to someone it made me think the cable company was more interested in forcing me to talk to certain people and agree to certain things than serving me.  Each time I repeated my phone number to some new person I found myself wondering: do we make church like this?  Do we make getting to know Jesus such a challenge that people lose interest?  Do we chase away people who want to know God because we make them jump through hoops?

Lets face it – no one enjoys talking to the cable company.  It’s not fun to get indirect answers and insincere promises from a business.  So what makes us think someone would like being treated that way when it comes to church?

Now I don’t think most churches (or cable companies) really want to make life more difficult for people.  It’s just kind of what happens.  For companies it’s easier to put in automated phone lines than pay people to answer the phone.  Sure it causes frustration to the customer, but it saves on the bottom line.  Which means they have a decision to make: do we streamline customer support?  Or do we save money?  The way a company answers those types of questions determines the message they send.  It shows the world what they consider a priority. 

Churches aren’t any different.  Maybe we require people to dress a certain way, or talk a certain way, or believe a certain thing before we’re willing to spend time with them.  It’s unintentional for most churches.  But it still happens.  Every time we choose worship style over Jesus we’re telling the world where our priorities lie. 

We’re telling them that it’s not God that counts, but our religion.

Somewhere along the way a handful of churches decided that clothing was next to Godliness.  While another handful decided that loud rock music determines our “commitment” to God.  What started out as our individuality in Christ became our definition of Christ.  We’ve started sending the message, “if you don’t like it, then maybe this isn’t the place for you.”

That doesn’t sound like Jesus to me. 

Our differences are important.  Our passions make us unique.  But maybe it’s time we all decided that it’s more important to connect people to Jesus than to make them jump through the hoops of our differences and passions.  Maybe everyone doesn’t have to agree on all the details, as long as we agree on who Jesus is and what he means for our lives.  Maybe church doesn’t have to be so complicated.  Maybe it’s time to serve first, and ask questions second.

Or maybe we should just get into the cable business.