Do you think modern Churches can afford to tolerate people who take no part in Church life?

Resentment can be engendered against perceived outsiders and non-contributors in pretty much any community. A church is exactly such a community. Some people will work very hard for the church - for fundraising, for awareness, for day-to-day maintenance, whilst others will just attend on sundays, and disappear. It's natural for some to resent this - it is part of human nature.

However, in the special case of a Christian church, it does smack of hypocrisy - after all, selflessness is a virtue. And also, if one holds that maintaining church attendance equates to maintaining the faith (which is very debatable) then you would, of course, be shooting yourself in the foot.

As you say, this stands irrespective of whether your actual example is a spoof (and it's truly amazing that anyone could FAIL to notice that!).

In any sort of sales it is always a goal to get the product into the hands of the consumer. This is why you see so many free trials of things from vacuum cleaners to Bose radios. Once the customer has had a chance to live with the product he will not want to let it go, and may end up buying more accessories such as vacuum cleaner bags and bookshelf speakers for the radio.

People who just sit in the church are the same thing. The church has put the product in their hands. Given time, a certain percentage of them will buy, it is inevitable. This is why you sometimes see signs outside a church that say something like "Spend an hour with Me". They don't have to buy right then, just to listen to the sales pitch is enough.

Any salesman knows this is all you have to do. While you cannot control how many people will buy, you can control how many hear the sales pitch, and that is the first step. Not all sales are immediate, either; some happen a year later. The object is to plant the idea in the customer's head.

No, some people have very legitimate reasons for not going to sunday school or getting involved on a high level. What about the poor guy 70 years old who has and invalid wife at home that he takes care of 24/7 and on Sunday morning he has someone come watch her for an hour so he can at least worship the Lord with fellow believers once a week? I've seen too much to question such things.

I'm not even a churchgoer and the answer to that would be a simple no! In this modern world we live in, with multiple income families, shift work, our kids activities, for some families it maybe almost impossible to do anything but attend Sunday service. Those same people generate income for the church, period.

That my be a good question.

My church is 2000 miles from my home, kinda hard for me to get there!

But my Pastor does understand that I can not show up every Sunday (or any Sunday) so I telecommute! My Pastor allows that!

If a church wants you gone you should leave!

Tell them to leave!? Then you would be defeating your purpose to get everyone interesting in believing!

Then, I do not like the way you push your religion down everyone's throat. Maybe these people would be better off it you kicked them out.

I would think in order to financially survive in the future they will all have to accept and tolerate nonbelievers of any association.

I think they've beome more mega-corporate than church.

I can't help but notice that the $$ would solve the problem.

Maybe the days of priests living high on the hog are diminishing.

In my church the slogan for serving is, "We serve because He first serve."

One must be so secure in the love of God and wants to serve. Not because they need to BUT because they want to.