timothy 1769:
John 4
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
John 6
34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Matthew 11
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Yes, how seeker-unfriendly.
OK, your response basically came across this way: Let first-time visitors figure out their own parking situation--if they're really seeking, they'll climb mountains to hear the message they don't know yet they're going to get. Try to put people to sleep with the music if the sermon didn't already do so. Make sure the building is drab and dreary inside, and too hot or cold, so people will be uncomfortable enough to focus on the preaching. Use Bibles that newcomers won't understand because of the big words and out-of-date phrases, and if they want to look up the verses you cite, well, that's what the table of contents is for, anyway. Don't provide child care during the service, but let the visitors' kids wiggle and squirm on their laps, screeching, whining, and crying; that'll help them and everyone around them pay better attention to the service. Coffee and doughnuts after the service? What for? You wouldn't invite someone to your home and then offer them anything to eat or drink, so why do so at church? Make sure every member knows you're the only minister. Let each person using them clean the bathrooms. Prominent signs for exits, lavatories, and so on? Naw, if they gotta go they'll surely figure out where the bathroom is--hee, hee, besides, I love to see the looks on their faces when they find out we have an outhouse out back behind the parking lot! The church in Acts grew just fine without indoor plumbing. The message of the gospel certainly doesn't need toilets. Use lots of theological jargon; they'll be impressed. Don't provide convenience, comfortable surroundings, or common courtesy: after all, visitors may come to your church anyway, despite all the negative word of mouth, hear the gospel, get saved, and then go somewhere else to worship. At least they've been evangelized. Let someone else disciple them; that's not what we do here.
In other words, it came across as negative, negative, negative. Setting things up to make people likelier to come in the first place, to want to come back again, and to be able to concentrate on the service, let alone have the least bit of enjoyment during it, is unnecessary. All that's necessary is being born again--which will somehow happen to a lot of people who'll come anyway, get it anyway, and stay anyway. After all, that's how successful missionaries always work: they don't accommodate the interests or language or culture of the natives or address their needs, they plunk down a church and present the gospel and are wildly successful at winning their souls.
These are practical applications and maybe even a little window dressing, but let's get back to the point, as Pastor Larry said, which is to focus on the five biblical purposes of a church, and how to best fulfill them, here and now, where you are. Evangelism is only one of the five. To fulfill that purpose, every member must be trained in effective evangelism. If services are also going to be evangelistic in nature, then you need to find out specifically what draws people to your church who've never been there before (build on your strengths), and what keeps unchurched people in your area from going to church, or to your church, then address those issues. And so on with the other biblical purposes. That's the point of the PD principles, and part of the point of the thread.
