Are non-believers supposed to come to church?
Meeke Addison of the American Family Association considers the original intention for the church.
“The church is not a social club for good people or those who are seeking a place to belong. Church is the body of Christ; it’s a gathering place of believers.”
This doesn’t mean that non-believers unwelcome at church. However, according to Meeke, the church was originally designed for those who already believe.
“We know a non-believer can come to church. The problem we have found is that the church has lowered its standards to gather people who are not believers.”
If we look at the first century church in the Book of Acts, what do we find?
“You see that their number was growing because people were being converted. Their numbers weren’t growing because people just came to hang out, in fact, hanging out could have meant their life.”
Church wasn’t for someone who just wanted to be around nice, moral people.
“They came because they had come in contact with the true, living God and they had received the blood of Jesus to cover their debt, and they were grateful.”
We come to church to show our appreciation for what God has done for us, and to strengthen our faith.
“They’ve got to be equipped, they’ve got to be strengthened, they were given to prayer and the reading of God’s Word.”
Churches that are focused on bringing people to Christ, but forget to nourish the believers already in their midst, run the risk of doing a disservice to their brothers and sisters in Christ.
“These seeker-sensitive churches where they say, ‘Oh, just come on in, we won’t be too heavy on the Word because we want you to feel comfortable.’ Far be it from us to water down God’s standards so that those who have not named Jesus Christ would feel more comfortable.”
