KWCH - Kansas News and Weather - Church Doesn't Suck

Church Doesn't Suck

by Kim Hynes

A Wichita church is trying to get more people to its Sunday service.  To do reach  people the church  came up with a three word slogan.  Now some people say it's too much and they're offended.

More than 42,000 people pass through 21st and Tyler every day.  So there are plenty of ways to grab their attention.  "It's a conversation starter," Pastor Bryson Butts said.

You can't miss the conversation GracePoint Church is starting.  It's three words on a billboard in black and white, 'Church Doesn't Suck'.   "We wanted to speak directly to the people who have maybe given up on the church, maybe they've given up on god," Butts said.

The pastor thinks he can change their minds by speaking on their terms.  "I believe the church has got to get in the game and to speak a message that will be relevant to this culture. The message doesn't change but the methods have to change," he said.

He came up with the slogan after a young woman told him what she thought of his service.  She told him, wow this didn't suck.  He says he never had someone say that to him.

Butts realized he could reach people with the message but says it took him 15 months to get the guts to do it.  He knows people will be offended.  He was right.

Many people who saw the sign didn't like it.  "We don't speak that way and it offends me that a church would," one woman said.  Another man says he wouldn't go to a church that used the word suck to draw people in.

The pastor says if you're offended, you're not who he's trying to reach.   Instead he wants those at a crossroads in life to give church another chance.   "The message we have is far greater than those three words," he said. 

GracePoint Church started three years ago with 21 members. It's grown to 500.  The church meets weekly at Maize South Middle School and has plans to build a church of its own.