Southwood Presbyterian Church

Where are all the people?

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

When I was a child my mother taught me that cute little game you could play with your hands folded, “Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open it up and see all the people…” We would do it over and over again. As a child I loved to laugh and watch the ‘church’ open up and see all of the people.

On September 18th we are going to do the same thing, but at the end of our exercise things may look a bit different: “Everything is remodeled, except for the steeple, but when I look around where are all the people?” You need to know this: the empty chairs and pews are empty ON PURPOSE. You read that statement correctly: the empty chairs in Sunday Seminars and empty pews in worship there by design!

Some might say that empty seats indicate our decision to go to three services was premature. Some might say empty seats are a testimony to the failure of Sunday Seminars. There is a temptation to see these potential realities a referendum on a poor strategic decision. Consider another possible interpretation of the empty seats: what if they were actually part of the intended goal of this transition? That indeed is the case. They are part of the intended GOAL of this decision and I want to spend the rest of this brief article explaining ‘why’.

Imagine you are new to Huntsville. Imagine you desire to connect with a Bible-believing church. Imagine someone suggests that you give Southwood a try. Imagine walking into a place where you open the church and look past the steeple but all you can see is a room FULL OF people. Several things happen: 1.) You feel lost, like a number in a crowd. 2.) You feel invisible to everyone else there (and to some degree are). 3.) You subconsciously get the message that there is ‘no room’ for you. 4.) People in the church feel no compulsion or passion to invite others because subconsciously they have already decided that the church is ‘packed.’ 5.) The church becomes stagnant and ingrown. Eventually complacency sets in because the status quo has become very, very comfortable.

Now imagine that we add just one thing to this equation: empty seats. Instead of feeling ‘packed out’ we are now experiencing the ‘where are all the people?’ feeling. Where are the people? They are out there, in Huntsville, in Madison County and beyond. They must be out there, they’re not in here. The people who belong in these empty chairs and pews must be at your office, in your carpool line, at the ball fields and in your neighborhood. If you look around and find yourself longing for ‘all the people’ then remember why God put this church in Jones Valley. He put it here for His sheep, some of whom have already made it to this place and some He is now making room for in those empty seats. That empty chair next to you is for the sake of someone you have yet to meet; someone you have yet to invite; someone you have yet to call your friend. It is there by design. We made these changes IN ORDER TO get empty chairs and empty pews! The seats are empty ON PURPOSE.

Do something for the Kingdom: if you are in a room or a pew that is ‘full’ then get up and go get more chairs. Make more room. Make sure there are empty chairs everywhere! Expect that God will bring others. Plan for Him to bring others. Expect the hungry, needy, broken and downcast to come and feast on grace at Southwood. There was a day in the recent past when you walked through the door and there was room for you. Empty chairs and pews are now strategically available at Southwood to make room for the ‘you’ we haven’t met yet. We need to look in the church and look past the steeple to intentionally empty seats awaiting God’s people. That isn’t strategic failure; it is strategic planning! It is expecting that God will do what He said He will do—-build His church!!!

We need to be careful not to despise the days of ‘small things.’ That may sound ludicrous when we are talking about a church of 1,800 members, but some of us may end up in a classroom with only 4 people and a teacher. There may be some ‘holy huddle’ moments coming. PRAISE GOD! What an opportunity for fellowship, intimacy and real-life application! Before long having a ‘two or three gathered’ will seem like a shadowy dream from the past. Enjoy the relationships that will be built in these moments and take a mental snapshot. You can place that photo in the album right next to the photo of the room at full capacity. In BOTH photos God is at work. The only error in either context is the discontentment that longs for the other scenario while missing the blessing right before our eyes!

A final word of encouragement. God tends to grow His church in His timing. That means that our desire to visibly see growth may not directly coincide with His plan for growing us. In the meantime might I suggest that we pray. Ask God to do something. Ask Him to open the door to an invitation conversation with a friend. Start praying that God would move in the heart of someone you know. Pray them into that empty chair next to you. Pray their family into that empty pew. If you want to be really encouraged then choose the most hardened, least likely people you would ever expect to ever darken the door of this church. Pray expecting that they will walk through the door. Every time you walk into a room expect that they will be there. God loves His people more than you do; just be available and keep getting more chairs. One day, by His grace, they may just show up. When they do, don’t be shocked, be reassured, God hasn’t changed. Not so long ago you showed up here and it was just as scandalous. It is my prayer that Southwood always has lots of empty seats and empty pews, on purpose.