That's what she said when I told them about the First Ever Countywide Youth Music Festival our church was organizing.
Have you ever noticed how NFL announcers can make anything sound monumental?
"This is the first time in history that Brett has thrown 3 touchdowns on a rainy Tuesday against the Rams at a home game in a playoff game."
It sounds impressive when they say it. But really? How often does Brett have a chance to play the Rams on a rainy Tuesday during play offs season? And do those qualifiers really matter anyway?
I'm a soccer fan. So I've thought about football's unapproachable popularity in America a lot. This is my theory for why Americans love football more than soccer:
1.) Football has tangible, incremental accomplishments to celebrate as opposed to soccer's constant unending play. (more on this point in my next post)
2.) The announcers have a way of making every moment sound like the most important thing that has ever happened in the history of sports.
The truth is, none of it matters. Nothing that happens on the field actually matters. But it does matters. Because they make it matter. The entire sporting industry, and especially NFL announcers, do an unbelievable job at making every moment feel like it's the most important thing humanity has ever witnessed.
So why aren't people coming to church?
Because it doesn't matter.
At least that's what it feels like.
Failing churches are churches that do very little to sell people on the idea that church matters.
So if we want to fight the decline, first and foremost, do things that matter.
Second, get people to feel it. More than intellectually understanding that this church thing matters, people need to feel that this church thing matters.
That's why every time I brought up the Music Festival, I always made sure to call it, "THE FIRST EVER Fairfield County Youth Music Festival." And they picked up on it.
And really, it didn't matter. It was a bunch of amateur kids playing music in a room.
But really, it mattered a lot. It was actually a life-changing, history-making, earth-shaking experience.
There's a moment where one of the kids says to the audience, "I'm nervous. I've never performed in front of this many people before... God is great!" And then he launches into a song he wrote about his faith. That matters.
There were other kids dealing with the death of parents who were given a chance to sing their heart out. That matters.
These kids were given a chance to publicly express their faith through an art that they love. That matters.
But only if you tell them it matters. Only if you sell them on why it matters. Only if you talk like an NFL announcer and say, "Yes, we are making history today."