“The church is not for you!”
I jolted in my seat with surprise. It was the end of the church service, the band was making its way to the stage for the last song and my mind had begun to wander off. But at the pastor’s words, I snapped out of my reverie and listened to him with rapt attention.
“Church is not for you,” He said, “it is for them!”
Them being unbelievers. The pastor had just given a sermon on evangelism and wanted to stress the urgency of inviting unbelievers to church. The pastor’s remarks about church surprised me because I always thought the local church existed for believers to gather and worship God. But according to that pastor, the church was essentially a Bootcamp to form and recruit soldiers. His motto was even, “we will do anything short of sin to bring unbelievers to church.”
Many other pastors share this sentiment. Steven Furtick of Elevation Church once said to his congregation, “If you know Jesus, I am sorry to break it to you: This church is not for you. ‘Yeah, but I just gave my life to Christ last week at Elevation.’ Last week was the last week that Elevation Church existed for you. You’re in the army now. We do one thing: we preach Jesus so people far from God can know Jesus, and then we train them so that others can know Jesus.”
And Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, said, “If you are coming to Saddleback from another church, you need to understand upfront that this church was not designed for you. It is geared toward reaching the unchurched who do not attend anywhere…If all you intend to do is attend services, we’d rather save your seat for someone who is an unbeliever.”
The belief that the local church’s purpose is to attract and retain unbelievers is at the heart of the seeker-sensitive movement. Proponents of this movement support their view using Mark 2:17, where Jesus says, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous but sinners.”
But is that what Scripture teaches?
At first, I believed my former pastor when he said the church should prioritize the unsaved and make services comfortable for them. However, when I started studying the Bible for myself, I noticed that Scripture teaches otherwise. Acts 2:42 mentions the core elements of a worship service: apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers, and Scripture consistently shows that they are for believers only.
Apostles’ teaching
The preaching of the Word is the heart of a church service. Paul charged Timothy to preach the Word in and out of season because of the importance of hearing sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:2-3). But whereas Christians treasure God’s Word, unbelievers scorn it. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
Unbelievers don’t have the spiritual capacity to understand God’s Word. The enemy veils their minds, and they cannot understand the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). It’s only through the Holy Spirit that we can receive the message of Scripture. Otherwise, it is folly to us. Therefore, the apostle’s teachings are not designed for unbelievers.
Fellowship
Fellowship in Greek is Koinonia, and it means to share in common. It refers to our shared relationship with God through Christ Jesus (1 John 1:3;7). True Christian fellowship is more than gathering weekly. It’s an unbreakable bond among believers that transcends earthly relationships (1 Corinthians 12:12). The external activities we do together flows from our fellowship with God and one another, but it is not the cause. Consequently, an unbeliever cannot join in the church’s fellowship because he does not have fellowship with God (1 Corinthians 1:9, 1 John 1:3).
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:14-15, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?”
Unbelievers can come to church every Sunday, sing hymns, and attend life groups. But unless they have been regenerated, they are not members of the body of Christ and can’t fellowship with one another or with the saints.
Breaking of bread (Communion)
Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper or communion the night before He was betrayed. He commanded His disciples to break bread in remembrance of His body broken for us and to drink of the fruit of the vine to commemorate the new covenant brokered with His blood (1 Corinthians 11:26).
It’s not merely a symbolic act; when we partake in the Lord’s Supper, we share in common His death and benefit from His sufferings. 1 Corinthians 10:16 says, “The cup of blessing that we bless is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” During communion, we not only remember Jesus’ sacrifice, but we also feast on the blessings that come with it, such as forgiveness of our sins and peace with God.
Unbelievers cannot partake in the Lord’s Supper because they don’t believe in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. They may eat, drink with and even meditate on Christ’s death, but they cannot have communion—common union—with Him.
Prayer
Prayer is simply talking to God. It’s a privilege God has bestowed upon His children to communicate intimately with Him. And the Bible consistently says God doesn’t listen to unbelievers.
Proverbs 28:9 says, “If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.” John 9:31 says, “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.” And Isaiah 59:2 says, “but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”
God is omniscient, so He literally hears all prayers. He may answer unbelievers’ prayer at His discretion, but He generally doesn’t because unbelievers don’t know how to pray. Believers, however, have the assurance that God not only hears our prayers, but He will grant our requests when we pray according to His will (1 John 5:14-15).
We want unbelievers to be welcome, but we don’t want unbelievers to be comfortable. We think there’s a significant difference. We want to welcome them in, but we’re welcoming them as spectators of distinctly Christian worship. If they are comfortable, it probably means we are not worshiping in a distinctly Christian way because we have watered it down in some way.
Tim Challies
The Holy Scripture is clear; the church exists to worship and glorify God. It’s for those who can understand and apply Scripture, fellowship with God and His children, partake of the Lord’s Supper, and pray according to God’s will. Therefore, the local church is for believers.
It doesn’t, of course, mean unbelievers can’t attend services. We must invite them so they may hear the gospel and repent. But they must come in as outsiders, not members.
As John MacArthur said at the G3 2020 conference, “We want them[unbelievers] to feel welcome, and secondly we want them to know that they do not belong here. They are not part of the worshiping community.”
