Another Obstacle to Creating Community in the Local Church: Employing Shortcuts that Leaders Believe Work
If you have been reading my Substack over the last few weeks, you know my focus has been on what gets in the way of local churches beginning to develop real and deep community during their worship services, which serve as the single, most effective way to interact with the most people. I’ve examined three so far:
· Passivity by Design The way worship services are designed promote passivity rather than interaction.
· Time Constraints The vast majority of worship services are limited to no more than 90 minutes in length, and the choices most often made in how to structure them promotes passivity rather than interaction.
· Fear of Being Vulnerable Local churches want to attract and keep people coming to their services. Increasingly, people fear being vulnerable, so very little on Sunday mornings require them to get out of their comfort zones and experience vulnerability.
This week, I want to examine the “shortcuts” churches employ to try to create a sense of community. I believe churches feel the need to do this because they realize that the church described in the Scriptures is a community. Thus, being together in community should be the goal. Yet, the obstacles I have already described prevent it from being reached.
In an attempt to shore up an obvious deficit and create some sense of community, leaders have developed a number of common shortcuts. While there is nothing wrong with these in and of themselves, they are a poor substitute for true community where people are sharing their lives, both their joys and struggles, with one another.
Here are a few that I have observed over the years:
· Emphasis on Greeting Teams Leaders know it is important that people feel welcome at their churches, so they make sure they do by placing people at the doors who personally greet each person/family as they arrive. I think churches do this very well. Indeed, it is nice to have someone greet you with a smile and a welcome. Yet, there are not enough greeters or enough time to engage people beyond the welcome. So, while what people may experience is positive, it falls short of really promoting community, particularly if this sense of welcome doesn’t extend beyond the front doors.
· “Meet Someone You Don’t Know” This is that time in the service where leaders hope they can encourage interaction between people. “Stand up and meet someone nearby that you don’t know.” For a strong introvert like me, it is the longest one to two minutes on Sundays. And the rewards are mostly fleeting. I learn the person’s first name, whether they are a first-time visitor or have been coming for a while (if it is a larger church), and perhaps what their vocation is. Or everyone around me are people I already know. While this activity may get people talking briefly with others, it is most likely not going to lead to more expansive conversations later.
· Fellowship Dinners and Coffee/Pastries Times As one who spent many Sundays at churches to promote my campus ministry, often I and the students with me were invited to a meal after the service. Because people had questions for us, we were often delayed getting to the Fellowship Hall. Thus, people were already seated and sometimes already eating. What I noticed at these meals was most sat with the people they already knew. Think about new people who decide to attend these dinners. If the others are sitting with people they already know, how will they have fellowship with these people?
Another common practice is having coffee and pastries either before the worship service or between services. I told the story a few weeks back about my wife and I standing alone in the middle of a fellowship hall and not one person talking to us. At another church we were once involved in, people would use this time to catch up with their friends. Very few were looking to talk with people they didn’t already know.
There are a few other shortcuts that churches employ, but I think you get the gist of what I am pointing out; all these attempts fall short of what is needed to overcome the obstacles that already exist to creating real community. They may make leaders feel like they have a “friendly” church, but being friendly is not the same as having true community.
So what must a church do to change this dynamic? I have suggested a few things along the way, but next week I want to dig a little deeper into the changes we need to make. Have a great 4th of July weekend!
Until next time . . .
© Jim Musser 2026
