Why doesn’t Everyone Come?
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When I was a very young minister, fresh out of college, I set about work in my first church which was up in the Pennine Hills. I had the attitude of, ‘Now it can all start happening’. You know, the arrogance of young men straight from college who secretly believe that they are the very men that the world, and God, are waiting for, to turn the tide of history.

Well after a while and much humiliation, we start to ask, ‘Why don’t people come to church?’ – after all, we had expected that the bus and train companies would have had to make special arrangements to cope with the vast crowds wanting to come. Why don’t they come? And as God deflates us more and more and smashes our pride, another question begins to take shape – an altogether more fruitful one. It’s the reverse of the question with which we started. It’s – ‘Why do these people come to church?’

So you see it’s changed from, ‘Why doesn’t everyone come?’ to ‘Why does anyone come?’

As soon as that has taken place, then we are ready to start learning our real business. Then we can begin to find some sensible and deeply mysterious answers.
There is only one valid reason why anyone should come and that is to worship God. Real worship is the celebration of the mighty acts of God. It is to become a living part of God’s ongoing deliverance. It is to meet God personally and be truly involved.

Now read: Deuteronomy 26: 1-9.