Filling baseball stadiums and filling sanctuaries share a lot more in common than we might imagine.
I used to think that he Tampa Bay Devil Rays were no more than an out of place minor league dumping ground. I attended a few games, mostly through the gifts of others, but often found the experience frustrated by poor facilities, bad parking, and high food prices.
Then, late last summer, the team began to win ball games. After adding some veteran players in the off-season (and exorcising the ‘Devil’ from their name) pundits began to predict that the newly christened Rays might actually finish the season at .500 for the first time in history.
Now, they are within 28 games of the end of the season, have one of the best records in all of baseball, and are on track to make the playoffs. It is crazy around here – so crazy that my son Seth, who on most days would not care what ANY sports team was doing, came over Sunday night to watch the game on TV with me.
As thrilling as this is for us locally, the story that is now dominating national and local media is the supposed poor attendance at the games. A Sportscenter anchor snipped, for example, that all 14 fans at the park for one of the games cheered.
All who live here are being SCOLDED for not coming out to support their team. It is the scolding that interests me, but first the facts:
On Saturday I looked at the stats. The Rays through 69 home games were drawing an average of 21,106 at each game. That puts them near the bottom of major league cities in attendance. However, what no one seems to notice is that this is an increase of nearly 30% over the same number of games last year. So, no, they are not packing the place like the Chicago or New York teams, but the fan base is growing, a fan base that for 8 or 9 years was severely alienated by ownership.
Would that Hope Presbyterian Church had seen a 30% increase in the past year!
So, we are scolded. We are told repeatedly that we ought to be ashamed. That we need to get out and support our team. That the empty seats have a depressive impact upon the players. That we are the laughing stock of the major league. And so on.
How effective, really, is it to ‘guilt’ people into an entertainment activity? Have the extra 5000 people per game come because they have ‘felt bad’? Will 10,000 more come because they feel they must? Did I attend last night’s game because I felt guilty? Hardly.
But when we see empty seats in church, how do we respond? Do we look to see if we have done something to alienate people? Often, I fear, we are tempted to scold. We tell people they must come. We pester them. We can so easily fall into the pattern of attempting to shame and guilt people into active participation in the life of the church. (Or Bible study, fellowship activity, small group, or whatever.)
Guilt and shame is not going to have any more lasting impact in the church than it does with the fans of a major league ball team. Those who come will come when coming is a delight. and coming will be a delight when they fall in love with Jesus and discover that he is met in worshiping with and gathering with his people.
If we who are in the church seek that delight, and find it, and celebrate it others will come. And we won’t have to shame them or guilt them, or even have a winning record.