“This Church Has Air Conditioning!”

Reposted from “Imagine,” my blog about religion that I cancelled this summer.
I assume that if your church has an space for announcements below it’s name sign outside of the church, this space should be reserved for one of the most important messages that your church has to offer the public.

I’ve seen everything from offers of eternal life, to threats of eternal damnation, to communal welcome messages, to verses of scriptural consolation.  The one that caught my attention the most was a church that I saw a couple of weeks ago with the following message in big, bold letters, outshining even the name and denomination of the church:

“This Church Has Air Conditioning!”

So has this particular church simply thrown in the towel - have they given up on the idea that they have truth to offer?  Or do they truly feel that the most powerful point they can offer the community is a comfortable climate?  Is it perhaps a kind of bait, and when unsuspecting people enter to enjoy their climate-controlled worship, they’ll hit them with the big one?

Physical comfort seems to be one of the key items of attention in church growth these days.  I remember hearing the principal of church growth set forth in my childhood church that once a church reached 70% spatial capacity, it would need to expand, open new service times, or start new branches; at 70%, new people would simply stop coming, or current members would leave due to the lack of elbow room.

While I suspected the integrity of this theory all along, I rejected it flatly as an invalid formula for true church growth when I saw a church that had 5 Lord’s Day services packed to the brim with people standing up, and even standing on the steps and yard outside the church where speakers had been installed.  The church is located in a hot climate and has very little “comfort” except for the large open windows and high ceilings; definitely no air conditioning.  A branch church is currently under construction, and it seems it will be packed full the moment it opens.  I have also heard of another church group which had very poorly designed buildings with low ceilings and bad ventilation which was experiencing similar problems; the churches were simply over-full despite lack of comfort and rapid opening of new church buildings. Also no air conditioning, and well over 100% full.

Conclusion; while I certainly have nothing against air conditioning and elbow space, neither have anything to do with church growth. 

I hope that the the air conditioning invitation I saw was simply excitement over a newly installed feature, and would soon be replaced with a more meaningful message.  Unfortunately, it wouldn’t surprise me if this was really the most important item they felt they could offer their community.