In recent years churches have worked hard to be “seeker-sensitive”.
That is, to remove all the unnecessary hindrances and roadblocks that would keep non-Christians from feeling welcome or from understanding what was going on.
Like churchy or in-house language or dress-codes or cliques or ignoring visitors or reserved seating or unwritten rules or negative, judgmental messages, etc.
So long as the necessary parts of Jesus’ message are communicated, and it isn’t watered down too far, this seeker-sensitivity is, in my opinion, a good thing.
But setting up a seeker-sensitive church gathering or program is not enough.
I have seen churches that remove all the unnecessary hindrances… then sit back and wait, wait for the seekers to come.
Jesus did not say, “sit back and wait for the nations to come!”
We are called to go, to go from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
In others words, we need to be seeker-intensive.
Our example is the ultimate Seeker, God Himself.
He does not sit back and wait for us to come and seek Him, because He knows that no one will (Romans 3:10-12).
Already in the garden of Eden right after Adam and Eve sinned, He came looking for them — “where are you?” (Genesis 3:8-9).
Sure, people seek Him to, there are many examples in the Bible and in all world religions of people seeking God.
But that is because the Seeking God has been at work in their circumstances so that they will seek Him (Acts 17:24-27).
We seek, because He first sought us!
Jesus is the ultimate demonstration of the Seeking God.
Jesus makes it plain that He came to seek and to save the lost! (Luke 19:10).
And now, as Jesus-followers, we are being sent for the same reason.
As the Father sent Jesus to seek and to save the lost, now He sends us (John 20:21).
This means, like Jesus, we need to go where the lost are, and build relationships with them to help them find the way.
We need to demonstrate love and compassion to those in need, that they can experience the love of Jesus.
We need to leave our comfortable places to put ourselves where people are uncomfortable, and in need of God’s comfort.
We need to reorganize our schedules and prioritize our use of time to connect with seekers, that they may meet the Seeker!
We will not see people connect with Jesus by simply waiting for Him to do it for us.
He is sending us, we are His communicators, He chooses to do is work through us.
Will we become a seeker-intensive church?
Will you become a seeker alongside the Ultimate Seeker?
Will you make every effort to build relationships with people far from God, and then be available to them that they might experience Jesus and God through you?