It has been suggested that gospel meetings have run their course. The primary reason for this conclusion is that gospel meetings are no longer attended as well as they used to be.  Not only is it harder to get non-Christians to attend, but it seems harder to get our own members to attend as they should.  Because of this, many local churches have ceased having gospel meetings, and I am sure that many more are contemplating doing the same.  This begs the question, “are gospel meetings still useful?”  Before answering that question specifically, let me address the problem of poor attendance.

It is understandable that non-Christians are not coming out to meetings as frequently as they used to, seeing that the level of spirituality in this country has dropped considerably over the past few decades. While we are certainly disappointed in this development, there is not much we can do to change it.  There has risen a generation in this country who, not only are not inclined to spend an evening worshipping God, they quite frankly are turned off by so-called organized religion. The only way to reach many of this generation is to compromise with scripture and offer a contemporary kind of worship that appeals to the flesh.

Denominational churches have been doing this for years, resulting in a plurality of mega-churches that attract thousands.  Sadly, we see this trend being taken by some local churches of Christ. The Landmark church of Christ in Montgomery, Alabama, a 1,500 member church, added a service on Sunday they call the 360 Service.  It is a more contemporary service than others, taking place in the church’s Life Center gymnasium.  The service is described as follows:

“The lights on the stage are dimmed. A band launches into song, and the crowd stands to its feet, swaying from side to side” (The Montgomery Advertiser, May 23, 2009).

They call it the 360 Service because the seats are arranged in a circle with a stage in the middle where the preacher preaches. The whole service is casual. The preacher, Buddy Bell, says, “It’s very informal. Normally I preach in blue jeans.” Their purpose is to attract those who would not usually come to a church service, though attracting people to something unscriptural is really not helping anyone.

While these kind of services seem to attract some of the “un-churched,” the truth is, more and more people are staying away from what some call traditional worship services.  We certainly have seen this in the last several years.  Do you remember the days when dozens of visitors from the community would come out to a gospel meeting?  It was not unusual to have 10, 20, 30, baptisms during the course of the week.

Those days, at least for now, are gone. So, are gospel meetings still useful?  The short answer is yes.  What do we do in gospel meetings?  The primary goal should always be to praise God.  This still takes place, regardless of numbers, whenever people gather and worship God in spirit and in truth. God seeks such to worship Him (John 4:23-24).  It does seem, however, that our goals, so far as the souls of men are concerned, should be refocused.  It used to be that the goals of gospel meetings were to first win souls and then to edify the saints. In light of who is attending meetings these days, those goals should simply be reversed. Do we want to win souls during our gospel meetings by teaching and baptizing those who respond to the gospel invitation? Of course.  The truth is, however, gospel meetings today have become more revivals than anything else.

Is there anything wrong with this?  Not necessarily.  Saints need to be edified, and gospel meetings are a great time and place to do that very thing.  If we start looking at gospel meetings as revivals where Christians have the opportunity to grow and be strengthened in the faith; thus, being in better position to teach their friends and neighbors about Christ, instead of being disappointed about the lack of baptisms during the week, we will see the usefulness in Christians getting together to sing, pray and study the Word of God.

Now, the issue of our own members not showing up for gospel meetings is different.   We cannot just chalk this up to a changing society and be content with it.  Just because the world around us changes, that does not mean that we, as God’s children, must conform.  As we have stated, we know why we get less visitors from the community, but there is no excuse for members who are not working or are sick, not properly supporting a gospel meeting. Is there something better to do than worship God and grow in the faith? Gospel meetings are still very useful and personally, I hope they do not go by the wayside.  But they are only useful to those who support them as they should.