Thought For The Day

A Workable Plan?

Maybe what the Church of Jesus Christ needs is a new plan to get people involved in faithful attendance at gatherings, increasing Bible study and prayer, and encouraging folks to reach out in sharing their faith.

We have always worked at getting people who come to Church to be faithful givers of financial support. It is questionable as to how well that is working. So here’s a new plan. Yes, I admit, I have stolen it from another area of life. But at least I will tell you from whence it came:

A new study found that the best way to get people to quit smoking was to bribe them. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study found that even more important than rewarding people with cash if they quit was the threat of losing money if they weren’t successful. (TIME)

So. . .first we start with bribing people to come. They would have to commit to giving a certain percentage of their income, and then we would, through wise investing to increase the amount of the take, return to them a percentage of the profits divided among the faithful members. Granted they would given credit from God for being faithful givers, we would just supplement their desire to do so with the bribe.

Or, better yet, those who want to become members (which, we would tell them, comes with a special place in Heaven) would post a cash deposit. Then if they fail to follow the “rules,” and wish to remain members, they would be charged a “fee”  (from their deposit) for not attending regularly, failing to participate in activities, or not sharing their faith with friends and family. We will need some of those fees to support the “bribe” program. On the positive side, if they do what they are supposed to, the invested fees will return a dividend once a year.

Well, I know it’s a new thing. And, people do so hate change. But let’s not knock it till we have tried it!

2 Comments

  • dp

    HOw about we (the church) “Go?”
    wE have it backwards, it is not “if we build it, the Lost will come.” Well maybe they come, but it seemingly makes no difference (and a whole bunch of lost people in the church seems to cause a lot of problems).
    It is always “invite a lost person to church” I have never figured the source of that thought. IF I have a lost friend, the first place to “invite” them is to a relationship with Christ.
    Maybe I have it wrong, but when I step foot into a church on Sunday, My hope is to be refreshed from being in the world for a week. To Hear the Word of God, to fellowship, so that Monday through Saturday, I can be a witness.
    When we think, “bring a Lost Person to church,” we should realize the “person” is a Lost person which means godless, perverted, murderer,etc. But most would reply “I would only invite my “good” lost friends”…..Yes, we have it backwards.

  • christianwest

    dp,
    Thanks for your comment. It got me to thinking that my “tongue in cheek” commentary might have misled some.

    You, of course, are exactly right.

    It is the Believers who seem to need some encouragement to forego “forsaking” the Family. That is what is so sad.

    We do indeed have “reaching the lost” backwards. It is, and has always been, “Go, and tell,” not “come and hear.”

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