1. Change your attitude and outlook
Some people walk into church and sit down in the pew with the mindset that the service will be boring… long before the pastor even walks onstage! Instead of thinking how long and drawn-out the service will be, make a list of a few of your favorite things about the service. Maybe you like the upbeat music that’s played or how the pastor starts off each sermon with a joke. Go deeper and think about the new things you’ve learned and how much you’ve grown spiritually because of church. The next time you attend a church service, you’ll have plenty of things to look forward to.
2. Grow in God
Some people are what is known as “Sunday Christians”- they try to grow in God by going to the weekly church service, but then they don’t do anything for the rest of the week to go deeper in their spiritual walk. Don’t be one of these people! Make time to pray and read your Bible at least once a day. You can pick up a girls’ devotional, or even just read the devotions inside of Girlz 4 Christ! When you do this, church will seem less like a spiritual cramming session and more like a time to gather with other believers and encourage one another.
3. Get plugged in
Some people think church is boring because they feel as if they are just a number in the crowd, and it wouldn’t make a difference whether they came or not. SO not true! God wants you to go to church for two very important reasons: so that you can grow in Him, and you can fellowship with other believers. One way to accomplish both of these is to get plugged into a small group. Youth groups are great because you’ll have the chance to connect with Christians your age and the sermon topics are geared towards things you do in everyday life. If your church doesn’t have a youth group, try to join a women’s group, a Sunday school, or a family group.
4. Serve to see the bigger picture
Some people expect to go to church to get “spiritually fed”. While we all have “holy hungers”, we also need to realize that the people we sit with at church have needs, too. Explore the needs that your church has by volunteering in different ways. There are tons of ways you can serve at church; you can be a greeter, a children’s church helper, an office assistant, or a ministry worker, just to name a few. Ask a church leader how to sign up with something that interests you. You’ll feel more like a part of the church when you actually contribute your time and effort.
5. Invite friends
Some people don’t like church because of the other people in the church- too old, too young, too uptight, too loose. Even if you feel like an outsider at your church, try to reach out and make friends anyway. Better yet, invite your friends that don’t attend a church. Friends can make church seem a lot less boring. Before the church service, you can catch up on talking, you can sit together during the service, and after, service, you can reflect together on the message. Which brings us to our final way to make church “un-boring”…
6. Reflect
The whole reason you go to church is so that you can hear from the Lord. Often times that comes in the form of a sermon that the pastor gives, but it could come from anywhere- a chat with a friend, the way the person in the pew behind you acted, even from the donut that the morning greeter served you! Take some quiet time after church to think, pray and reflect and try to see what message God was trying to convey to you. Even if you think church is boring, God has you there for a reason- do you know what that reason is?
Originally published in the January/February 2012 edition of Girlz 4 Christ Magazine.
Girlz 4 Christ 