This was an interesting observation from this past month. It seems to me, and to the people that I talked to, that the people who quickly grow discontent with their church (or feel that their church isn‘t doing a good enough job) tend to be people who don‘t play a significant role in serving others who are a part of their church. And the reverse also seems to be true. People who are deeply invested in serving and caring for the lives of other people in their church don‘t seem to complain much... they tend to be quite happy with their church.

I assume that you can imagine specific scenarios and see how this could be true. When someone simply attends church services, but is not involved beyond that, it‘s probably hard for them to not see themselves as a “customer” of that particular church. And when someone sees themselves as a “customer” they tend to start expecting “customer service.”

And so, receiving religious goods and services from a particular group, without sacrificing or contributing much to that group, can leave people saying things like, “I wish the music were more like ______ and I wish he‘d preach more about ______. And they really ought to get better chairs, and a better children‘s ministry check-in system, for that matter. Also, the youth ministry really ought to provide more activities for my children. And, come to think of it, why didn‘t anyone visit me last month when my gallbladder was removed! This church needs to get on the ball and have some better customer service!”

Meanwhile, there may be other people who have bought into the idea that they “are the church.” The church is simply a group of people made up of people just like them, and together they work to accomplish the mission of the church. These people tend to see themselves less as customers and more like employees.

This second group of people sacrifice to the point that there is built-in loyalty. When “the church” does something, it‘s sorta‘ like “they” did it. Because they are a part of this larger organism. When they see a Coke can in the bushes, they don‘t say, “Someone really ought to clean up around here!” but instead they go pick it up and throw it away, thinking, “I am a part of this church and I don‘t want this area looking dumpy.”

People who are actively involved in serving towards the mission of the church typically don‘t complain, and when they do, they complain about all the right things like, “I was thinking that maybe we should adjust how we do ___________ so that we can better accomplish what God has called us to do.” In fact, stuff like that isn‘t even perceived as a complaint most of the time (even though they might actually be pointing out one of the same exact concerns that the “customer service” people had) because of the motive behind it.

So, as I was thinking about it, I came up with this idea: Would you like to like your church even more? Well, then serve! Serve in a formal capacity (like volunteering for a particular task or need) or you could even serve informally (like serving several of the people within that church by caring for them and their specific needs). I suspect that this might be one of the best ways for people to move toward church contentment. And, who knows? Perhaps the church will be better off from your service, and then there actually would be less to be concerned about