Not For Everyone

Yesterday a lady came into Verve for the first time. She walked in looking disgruntled. (Which is, actually, not that easy to do.) She found someone to complain to, and started complaining. “The music in the lobby is too loud. You can’t even have a conversation. This isn’t the way church is supposed to be.”

If you were the person she complained to, what would you say?

I wasn’t the person, but if I were, I would have said, “I’m sorry, but we’re just not the church for you.”

That may sound callous, but it’s not. What would be callous is not telling the truth. What would be callous is giving her false hope by telling her that the music isn’t always so loud, or that she’ll get used to it, or that she’ll learn to love us.

The reality is that you just can’t please everyone. And there are tons of churches that would please someone who already believes in God and likes church and wants it done in the traditional way. At Verve, we’re trying to be church for people who don’t believe yet and don’t like church and have rejected the traditional version of it. For that group of people to like what we do, the complaining lady just can’t.

And, by the way, she came into the service, stayed for about five minutes, and then left, looking disgusted. And that makes me feel … not bad at all. I hope she finds a church she likes, there are a lot of options.