It makes sense.
Easter Sunday is still the highest-attended Protestant service. This year will undoubtedly be the same - and this is great! I pray that God changes many lives this weekend.
That said, the intense promotion epitomizes a mindset that has guided the church for decades: the key is to get them in the building!
Times have changed. As recently as 1990, 86% of Americans identified as Christian.
Of course, they weren’t all committed followers of Jesus. Many of them showed up to church only on Easter and Christmas and lived lives that were inconsistent with Christian beliefs. Still, they viewed Christianity positively.
These were the people that would attend evangelistic rallies made famous by Billy Graham, Luis Palau, and others. Drawing on favorable views of the Church, these preachers could fill stadiums and make arguments using the Bible as a source of authority.
We now live in a post-Christian culture.
The fastest-growing "religious group" in America is the religiously unaffiliated, with over 30 million added in the last decade alone. This is most pronounced among millennials and Gen Zs, making up approximately 45% of these two generations today.
This shift is largely due to nominal Christians becoming secularized.
Culture has left its religious roots behind and is dominated by secularism (death to religion) and relativism (death to truth). The Bible is no longer considered the moral compass; rather, everyone is free to decide for themselves what is right and wrong.
Young people, in particular, see the Church as irrelevant to their day-to-day lives - a dead, empty tradition of the past.
To identify as a Christ follower today is to run the risk of being labeled narrow-minded, anti-scientific, or homophobic. With diminishing benefits and increased cost, the steadily-growing exodus from the Church isn’t surprising.
And yet, as revealed by the Easter marketing hysteria, the majority of the Church's evangelistic efforts today are still focused on those with a nominal Christian worldview, using a "come and see" or "bring your friend" model of evangelism - all while the cultural divide between the Church and secular culture widens.
We should invite people to church, and I am all for creative marketing strategies. But to be truly effective, we need to understand that they’re not coming to us - we need to go to them.
Jesus modeled this approach. He spent his time with sinners, tax collectors, and notorious people. He did this so much he was accused of being one himself.
In Acts 17:17, we see that the Apostle Paul did the same. It says,
“So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.”
Going forward, the greatest share of our energy, resources, and creativity should be devoted to answering the question, “How can I reach people who won’t come to Church?
Fueled by God’s power, this approach will make us effective in the present and beyond.
Unless, of course, you're a kid - in which case, keep that kid-to-egg ratio low. Am I right?
Want to watch the full conversation? Check out Should We Stop Inviting People to Our Churches?
