This list is intended as a funny way to call attention to some of the major problems in churches today. In case it’s not painfully obvious, nearly everything that follows contains pure, dripping sarcasm. Unfortunately, I have encountered some or all of these issues/attitudes in most of the churches I’ve visited over the past decade or so.
- Your church does not need to be accessible. After all, you don’t want any disabled, injured or old people in your congregation anyway, right? They’ll just get in the way.
- Those posted hours? Not important. There’s no reason to show up for services, no one’s coming anyway. And don’t ever leave a note on the door if you happen to go elsewhere or cancel service, no one’s gonna come by to check out your church on the one night you’re gone, especially if you have a big blinky welcome sign out front. Whatever you do, do not call your regular members and let them know what’s going on if you have to cancel a service, they won’t care if they show up and the doors are locked.
- If you’re a pastor, be sure to complain about former members that have wronged you, or the church, from the pulpit. Your congregation needs to know you’ll snipe at them behind their backs if they ever do you wrong. It won’t look bad on you personally, and it’s not gossip or anything.
- Stay far far away from the internet. No one who just moved to your area will ever think of looking for a church online, and no one wants to keep up to date with church activities on sites like twitter or Facebook, the whole of the internet is a silly, evil fad, and it’ll eventually go away if you ignore it. Never return emails or phone calls either, if it’s important they can ask you face to face.
- If someone misses a week or two, just forget about them. If they really care about God they’ll come back eventually, and if they don’t you were better off without them anyway. No one wants their church family calling to check on them when they’re sick or unable to get to church. And they certainly won’t want to hear a friendly voice if they’re depressed or oppressed.
- Any visitor that comes through your doors and doesn’t meet your personal standards for dress, hygiene, adornments, skin color, class, or anything else should be immediately ostracized so that they know they’re in the wrong place, preferably before they even get a chance to sit down. This can be accomplished with dirty looks, scowls, whispers, and random gasps from a trained congregation, assuming you don’t wish to take a more direct approach. It’s only fair that they know from the get-go that they aren’t welcome, it’ll save awkwardness later.
- Be sure to complain regularly and loudly from the pulpit about the horrible people that keep calling the church asking for help and handouts. And whatever you do, never ever let the song leader sing songs with lyrics like “God loves a cheerful giver”, “give me Your love for humanity” or “they will know we are Christians by our love”.
- Do not, under any circumstances, find something for a church member to do if they come to you asking how they can help. No one really wants to feel like they’re doing something constructive for God or the congregation, so they must have an ulterior motive. If you deflect or ignore them enough they’ll give up and leave you alone, a sure sign that you were right and they really didn’t want to help in the first place.
- If someone is too loud, sings off key, gets too excited during worship and actually shows emotion, yells “amen”, or has the audacity to bring their child into the sanctuary with them, you should make sure they’re immediately pulled aside and schooled on proper church etiquette. Patriarchs like David never danced, or sang, or acted ‘crazy’ when they got excited about God, and Jesus never would have let kids get close when he was preaching!
- The pulpit is the best place to call out the sinners in your congregation. If you find out someone’s fallen into a specific sin you should preach a sermon against it as soon as possible; be sure to stare at them the whole time so they get the message, and so that everyone else knows who you’re talking to. If that doesn’t work, you might consider going to them in private later.
- Outreach is overrated. You’ll reach far more people if you refrain from doing any activities where you interact with the community at large. Stay away from any charity or missions programs, never interact with other churches, and make sure that no one in your congregation has any idea how to witness.
- If your church has to relocate, for whatever reason, you should not even think about calling your members, recent visitors and attendees. Anyone who really belongs to the church will have heard about the move already or can ask a member that already knows.
- If a member brings a visitor to your church, and that person is obviously not saved, you should make sure to take the first opportunity to scold the church member for being “yolked with unbelievers”. They should know better than to bring unsaved people into the church!
- Things like taking prayer requests or setting up prayer lists and prayer chains are unnecessary. No one should ever think that the church cares about major problems or illnesses they are dealing with, and they should never get the idea that they have an adopted family backing them up when they’re going through a hard time.
- Every single sermon should be positive, affirming, comfortable, saccharine, and uplifting. Never preach against sin; never preach about accountability, leading a holy life, or working for the Lord; never teach your congregation how to flee from temptation, grow their relationship with Christ, deal with adversity or persecution, or get through tough times. As long as you pretend the Christian life is all smiles and roses their lives will be perfect, and so will yours. It’s fine to just ignore or rephrase any Bible verse that seems ugly or difficult. As long as you keep tickling everyone’s ears their money will keep hitting your coffers… and that’s the real measure of success, right?
- Hypocrisy is very attractive, you should show it whenever given the least opportunity. “Do as I say, not as I do” is a great philosophy for any Christian to live by, especially a pastor.
- The music service should be all about entertaining your congregation. It’s really just a feel-good concert and should be approached as such, after all, they’re paying for it right!? If people happen to worship God some while they’re at it that’s okay, I guess, but your top priority should be making sure everyone’s happy and entertained.
I’m sure I could add a lot to this list, but I’m getting tired so I’m gonna call it. Do you have any to add?
