10 Wishes from a Pew Sitter
Thom Shultz

At the start of a new year, as a pew-sitter, I have a few wishes for the church leaders I know and love:

1. Banish the “stand and greet your neighbor” time in the worship service. I know your intentions are good, but it’s forced, fruitless and goofy.

2. Forget everything they taught you about three-point sermons. You’re wildly successful if you can get across one point. Just one good point.

3. Get out and spend time with real people. Schedule lunches at your members’ workplaces and schools. Listen.

4. Encourage regular evaluation. Use comment cards. Ask us what we remember from last week’s sermon. Then take us seriously, and adjust.

5. Crank down the volume of the music. Allow us to actually hear the voices of the flock.

6. Burn the fill-in-the-blank sermon guides. They’re insulting, distracting and ineffective. (Can you imagine Jesus using them? Let’s see, “Feed my _______.”)

7. Show hospitality. Encourage people to enjoy a cup of coffee after service.

8. Let us participate. Entertain our questions. Let the real people around us tell how God is working in their lives.

9. Relax. Make some real friends. Spend more time with your family. Don’t schedule every evening with church meetings.

10. Get rid of the pews. Really.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”

This article “10 Wishes from a Pew Sitter” by Thom Shultz was excerpted from “Holy Soup” blog. www.holysoup.com web site. January 2011. It may be used for study & research purposes only.