A Missing Opportunity in the Church Today [Inclusivity]

I believe that the Christian Church, at least here in the United States, has numerous problems it needs to address in order to be healthy and reproduce. Today I will be sharing just one of the reasons I believe that the Church is not what it should be. 

I think the Church could do a much better job with inclusivity. Now when I say that I am sure many people will already jump to conclusions, but I can assure you that nobody else sees this the way I do. What you think I am talking about is probably not what I am actually trying to talk about. I always seem to come at things from a different angle that does not appear to be the norm. Honestly, though, nobody is talking about this. So let’s start by defining what the word inclusivity even means.

Inclusivity: “the practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized, such as those having physical or intellectual disabilities or belonging to other minority groups.”

Now first off, I believe that Christ’s Church should have everyone from all walks of life. As the definition states: Mentally or physically handicapped people belong in the Church as well as people of minority groups. This is very common knowledge and thinking outside of these lines is extremely fringe. However, I am referring to a certain group of people that are often forgotten completely when it comes to Church. These people are shift workers, police, nurses, first responders, or anyone else that cannot possibly make the typical Sunday morning services. 

In my opinion, the Church needs to be more inclusive to the world around them by having more service times available. The old-fashioned Sunday morning service just isn’t possible for some people. Why does this matter? Well, why does the Church matter in the first place?

Ephesians 4:11-13

11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Christ gave to us people to speak His word for a reason. Apostles and prophets were before our time, but evangelists, pastors, and teachers still exist today. The Bible tells us that they are for the edifying of God’s people. We are all supposed to be worshiping, learning, and working together until Christ returns. That is the very reason for the Church. When chunks of people are excluded from this, we have a major problem on our hands. 

I am trying not to be unfair, but I need to say some of this stuff because nobody else is. There are pastors that make their entire living preaching one sermon a week. Sunday morning. Does more go into the job of being a pastor than preaching? Absolutely. In fact, preaching is a very small portion of what goes on. But with being full-time in the ministry, are you telling me you can't preach that same sermon, or write another sermon, for a different time slot throughout the week besides just Sunday morning? Let me say that I am referring to pastors that are full-time in the ministry, not men who work multiple jobs along with being a pastor. There is a big difference. I have a lot of respect for any pastor that holds down a church and a full-time job. 

So, at this very moment, if you were to do a Google search of any church in the city you live in, you will see mostly the same thing. “See you Sunday morning at (whatever time)”. This goes for all flavors of churches. This is not even specifying what type of church you want to go to, or what your specific theology is. That is another barrier altogether that complicates church life for these people even more. But we won’t even get into that at this moment.

Now, some churches DO have more than one service besides your typical Sunday morning, but they are few and far between. Some churches have Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday nights and this is good, it just is not the norm. Again, do a Google search for all churches in your area and see that very few of them compared to the total number of churches will have this type of schedule to offer. 

Some churches offer 2, sometimes even 3 different services for Sunday mornings. Although this is nice for a lot of people, it usually still only applies to people who already have Sunday morning as an option.

Now I know what some of you are thinking, I have heard these statements over and over from people who are so far removed from the reality of not being able to be in church: “Get a new job”. “Refuse to work Sundays”. The answer is this just is not possible in our day and age. We no longer live in a culture where everyone goes to their Monday through Friday day job and then takes their family to church on Sunday morning. Some people have to be staffed at their job on Sunday mornings, or all night to where they miss Sunday mornings because they need to sleep and do it over again. We want cops working Sunday mornings. We want nurses and doctors working Sunday mornings. The reality is we have moved into a 24/7 society that is always running, and because of this, people must work these odd hours. However, these people still need to be connected to local New Testament churches and surround themselves with other believers. 

I truly believe that the Church today really needs to focus on having more service times available. We can remove a lot of barriers just by offering other options besides the typical Sunday mornings.  Are shift workers important to the church? Are cops? Are doctors and nurses? Of course! We should make a better effort of providing these people an opportunity to thrive in a local new testament church. 

If you are not sure that you are going to heaven, please get this settled today by clicking here: How to Go to Heaven.

If you found this helpful or interesting, please share this with a friend. Lets help people grow in Christ!