Jesus came to seek and save ... those who are lost.

A family that wasn't in the practice of going to church attended the large, formal wedding of a friend. The family's youngest child, age three, sat perched on his father's knee watching all the comings and goings with great interest. There came a time in the service when a hymn was to be sung, and the organist crashed confidently into the opening chords of the song, putting the "pedal to the metal" in order to make a really good show. Immediately, the little boy cringed in terror and threw his arms around his father's neck pleading, "Daddy, make them stop the spooky music!" (Note: This story speaks volumes about busters and their reactions to Big Organ music.)

How many of you have ever been "spooked" in church? To those not familiar with the weird and wonderful ways of the church, its traditions and forms can seem not just odd, but downright threatening. We forget that the language and liturgy familiar to the initiated is strange and intimidating to those whose feet seldom stray into a church. The great French philosopher and skeptic Voltaire once said: "If you would speak with me, you first must learn my language." Unfortunately, the church can sound and seem that arrogant in its insistence upon learning ecclesiastical language and customs before speaking with God.

While it is true that the church serves as a community for the faithful, a place where Christians can feel at home, it is not the mission of the church to become some kind of closed clan. The church cannot use its desire to be "user-friendly" to the known and knowledge- able members of congregations as an excuse to be inaccessible to those still living without the entry password. The greater part of the church's mission is to be "seeker-friendly" to offer to the lost and lonely ones of the earth easy access to the divine love and salvation that awaits them in Jesus Christ.

Scholar/ethicist Stanley Hauerwas has suggested somewhat impishly that God is at work in the decline of the mainline church. Hauerwas suggests that the inward-turned focus of so many churches has made their existence irrelevant not to those who are "lost" but only to those who are already "found." Certainly, it is easier to plan a budget or build new facilities if you know exactly how many you can safely number among your fold.

But the church was not intended to function like some "country club" for Christians. The church's primary mission is not to provide meeting space, or potluck dinners or concerts. The church's mission is to ring out the Good News of the gospel to all those who are outside the walls of the church. When we only look to the needs and comforts of those already in our midst, we take on the role of an Esau selling out our birthright mission for a mess of comfortable in-house pottage.

Evangelism gadfly Roy Fish hits the nail on the head when he emphasizes the difference between "come and hear" and "go and tell" ministries. "People often say, 'Come and hear the gospel taught in our church' or 'Come and hear our evangelist preach the gospel.' This 'come and hear' kind of religion constitutes a reversal of the Great Commission of Jesus. His instructions to his church were not to invite people to 'come and hear,' but for believers to 'go and tell.' The main responsibility is not to bring the lost to the gospel, but to take the gospel to the lost. Jesus wants us to go and witness, but we have interpreted it to mean, 'Go and invite people to church.'" (Roy Fish, "Missing Thrust in Today's Evangelism," in Evangelism Today & Tomorrow [Nashville: Broadman Press, 1993], 43.)

Last fall, many Americans breathed a sigh of relief when convicted serial murderer Jeffery Dahmer was himself murdered by a fellow prison inmate. As reports of Dahmer's life since his imprisonment filled the news, how many of us cringed versus how many of us cheered upon learning that Dahmer had "found Christ," been baptized and felt some peace in his heart as a result?

It was, strangely, hard news to hear for a lot of us who call ourselves Christians (myself included). Most death-row inmates tend to have "deathbed" conversions confessing their faith right before their scheduled executions. After all the evil these individuals have done during their lives, the church finds it difficult to rejoice in what would ordinarily be considered "good news."

But who needs the message of God's love and redemption more than these? Christ did not die to save only "nice people" or those who are just a "little bad." Christ came to offer repentance and forgiveness to all who ask and to all who receive him and his Word. It is the completely lost sheep, the totally disappeared coin, that sets the searcher on an all-out recovery mission.

How does the church become a "seeker-friendly" organism? It takes more than multiple open doors, a big parking lot and praise music. Try asking yourself and your congregation some questions like these:

- Who are our neighbors? Take this literally. Who lives next door, down the street, across the back lot and around the corner? Just as importantly, do they know you?

- Where do our teen-age kids hang out? If it's at a nearby mall, the church should have a presence there. If it's in a local park, the church should have a presence there.

- Where is the greatest number of third-age (55-75) people concentrated in your community? Is it in a certain neighborhood, or an apartment complex, or an organized "community" for seniors? Do they need their lawns mowed, chores done, a "gofer" they can depend on?

"Seeker-friendly" means being friendly to seekers. Being "friendly," in case you've forgotten, means extending yourself, going out of your way, showing interest in others and their interests, even when they're not interested in you. Being "seeker-friendly" often means that you become the seeker moving out from behind church structure and facilities and into the community.

Sunday service turned into a Sunday of service for 250 members of Park Road Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C. The pastor canceled the morning meeting and encouraged members to do acts of kindness in the community. Volunteers fanned out to 15 sites to paint and landscape a chapel for the homeless, clean concrete blocks for Habitat for Humanity homes, wallpaper and paint an emergency shelter, feed the poor and lead devotionals at a nursing home. Senior adults and children stayed at the church to make tote bags and blankets for the homeless. The day closed with a 7 p.m. service at the church. "It became a religious renewal for our people," senior minister Allen Laymon told National & International Religion Report. He said many of his congreg-ants gave money to groups that minister to the poor, "but never had rubbed shoulders" with them. (National & International Religion Report 8 [19 September 1994], 5.)

Does your church have at least one "seeker-friendly" service, where those who are lost can find Christ without being "spooked" away?