Selling Tickets to the Gospel Show

An interesting trend has popped up on the Christian cultural landscape: Tickets. Tickets needed to attend worship services, namely Christmas and Easter.

The process is fairly simple: People go to a website or to the church itself and get tickets to attend the service of their choosing. The “call-to-action” almost always sounds something like, “Such-and-such service is almost sold out. Better get your tickets soon!”

Pros to Tickets

I understand the sentiment and heart behind wanting to fill up a church auditorium with masses of people, all to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. Some other benefits of “selling” tickets to your services include:

  • Ability to plan ahead. If you know how many are coming, you can plan much more strategically. Think about what would happen if you prepared dinner at your house for a dozen people and 300 showed up!
  • A sense of excitement. Let’s face it, we live in a culture that bleeds immediacy. If it’s in demand, no matter what it is, we want it. Selectively offering tickets is a good way to “build demand” for your service.
  • You ensure every seat is accounted for. Good stewardship.

Cons to Tickets

In light of the benefits of selling tickets to services, we must look at the other side of the coin. What does selling tickets to services say about the Church? (To be clear, I am aware that churches usually do not “sell” tickets in the same way that Ticketmaster does. No monies are exchanged.) What are we saying socially?

From where I sit, here’s what it means:

  • We have bought into the consumer-driven culture. We see something working (scarcity creates demand) in culture and we model it. For better or worse.
  • If you needed a ticket to attend your very first church service ever, what conclusions would you come to even before the pastor spoke a single word?
  • This seems to be a violation of the openness of the Gospel. If you run out of room at your church, you make more room. Hallways, gyms, fellowship areas, kitchens–you do everything you can to make sure everyone who wants to hear, can.
  • What do you say to people who don’t have a ticket but want to come? Do you turn them away?

To be fair, I have never been a part of a church that sells tickets to services. These are simply my observations after doing a small bit of research.

That being said, what do you think? Have you done this in your church? Been a part of a church that did? How did it work?

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Contributor: Justin Wise

I am a religious deviant who enjoys coffee, collared shirts, spending time with my wife and son, learning about quantum physics and creatively exploring the riches of the Spirit of Christ. Find more here: JustinWise.me
  • ywamer
    Tickets are fine. So long as Jesus doesn't make a surprise showing. He might not be allowed in.

    Could you imagine if that were the policy in the temple of Jerusalem in 0 - 30 A.D.? Oh wait, perhaps that WAS the policy. Was that why Jesus stormed and vandalized the temple? Because the money exchangers and traders were filling the outer courts (i.e. The Court of the Gentiles), the one spot in the temple that outsiders were free to visit? And if those guests did get in, what would they find? Coffee shops, bookstores and ticket collectors... er, uh... I mean, money exchangers and animal sellers.
  • no to tickets. period.
  • All I know is that my most memorable moments in Christian community have been small meetings where Jesus shows up in big ways. Generally not the other way around for me. But then again...my experience submits to God not God to my experience.
  • I think the interesting thing about all of this is the demand on the tickets. Most places that are doing the ticket thing have to because their service is in such high demand. I went to a production here in St. Louis at a church that has an amazing service. They have 10 showings, each one is filled to the absolute max, if you do not get there an hour or two early you do not get a seat. That is craziness.

    I think the real question here is why do we have to have tickets?
    My guess is because some churches "knock it out of the park" and others just are okay.
    I am very guilty of this myself.
  • ywamer
    My take is that if churches are even trying to "knock it out of the park" and have crazy-big productions then that's not Church. It's a concert. Or a show. But not Church.

    We, the people, are The Church. And anything that supplants the community of believers and replaces it with shock-and-awe filled mega-services is not Church. Cool, maybe. Just not Church.
  • perryjross
    Do I need a ticket to leave a comment?
  • Yes. Where is it. <BALETED.>
  • perryjross
    The irony is that WAS my comment
  • If your church distributes tickets for garage door events like Christmas and Easter, I would hope that you would set aside a certain number of seats for first time visitors who were not aware of the ticket process...
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