What Makes a Church Attractive?

What makes an attractive church? Is it a beautiful building? Stunning icons and interior design? Great coffee, charismatic leaders, and trendy songs?

The letter of Titus addresses this very question. In Titus 2:10, Paul gives us a hint of what a biblically attractive church looks like:

"In every way, they will make our teaching about God our Savior attractive."

As you live in a godly way — the way Jesus calls you to live — that's what makes a church attractive. It's not the buildings, the coffee, or the welcome team. Ultimately, it's people shaped by seeing Jesus, people living out the gospel.

This matters deeply. Before I was a Christian, my first visit to a church was at a little place in Ipswich called Bethesda Baptist Church. They were an attractive church. People I'd never met before invited me into their homes for lunch. People offered to pray for me — right there, on the spot. It wasn't normal. But it spoke to me of Jesus's love, and God used that attractive church to change my life.

Meet Titus and the Church in Crete

Our text is Titus 1:1–4:

"Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness — in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior — to Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior."

This is an unusual way to open a letter. If you were writing to someone who already knew you well, you wouldn't introduce yourself with all your credentials. Paul writes this way because the letter was meant to be read publicly — not just by Titus, but by the whole church, and ultimately by us today. It's worth noting: this shows how reliable the Bible is. These were public documents, read openly, and no one pushed back on the claims about Jesus.

Titus is mentioned throughout the New Testament — in Galatians, Timothy, Acts, and Corinthians. Paul clearly loved him. He calls him "my true son in our common faith," suggesting Paul led Titus to Christ. Together they preached the gospel, a church grew in Crete, and then Paul left Titus there "to put into order what was left unfinished" (v.5). Paul later writes, "The God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus" (2 Corinthians 7). What a role model — someone God used as a comfort and a blessing.

A Difficult Mission Field

Crete had a terrible reputation — even its own prophets admitted it:

"Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons" (Titus 1:12).

It was an island of pirates, mercenaries, and mixed peoples, with a legend that the Greek god Zeus had died there. There was no church there apart from this fledgling one Paul and Titus had started.

You could look at Crete and give up — like the shoe salesman who visits a land where no one wears shoes and says, "This is pointless, send me home." Or you could see it like the second salesman, who saw the very same fact and said, "Send me every pair of shoes you have — this is a huge opportunity." Paul saw the people of Crete not as hopeless liars and gluttons, but as people who desperately needed Jesus.

Faith That Leads to Godliness

Notice in verse 1 that Paul isn't only concerned with what people believe — he cares about the fruit of that belief: "knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness."

For Paul, faith in Jesus isn't just an intellectual shift. It should produce a changed, transformed life — growing in God's character: patience, kindness, gentleness, love, goodness. Yes, we are saved by faith alone, but genuine faith always produces a response.

Jesus said a good tree bears good fruit. An apple tree doesn't become an apple tree because someone labels it — it proves itself by producing apples. In the same way, faith should lead to godliness.

Two Applications

1. Being an attractive church is more than good theology.

We must get the balance right between learning about Christian living and actually living it out. Theology matters — a church with false teaching will die. But knowledge should affect behavior.

Think of a lifeguard who has all the training — swimming, CPR — but sits by the pool and watches someone drown without acting. That training is worthless if it doesn't lead to action. In the same way, if your faith isn't consistently leading you toward godliness, you have to ask: is this real faith, or just an intellectual exercise?

As the atheist philosopher Nietzsche once said:

"I will believe in the redeemer when his followers look a little more redeemed."

We need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk — at work, in our conversations, in how we treat one another, and within the church itself. Practical steps: pray for people on the spot instead of just saying "I'll pray for you." Follow up with people. Invite them into your home.

2. If faith in Jesus leads to godliness, then the gospel is the key to seeing our city change.

We rightly grieve over crime, corruption, and brokenness in our communities. But real change comes through people encountering Jesus. The gospel hasn't lost its power. As Paul writes elsewhere in Titus 3:3:

"At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures... But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us."

Think of Paul himself — a persecutor of the church transformed into its greatest missionary (Acts 8–9). Think of St. Moses the Ethiopian, a 4th-century bandit whose life was transformed after monks showed him the love of Jesus, until he eventually died for his friends. Think of John Newton, who went from participating in the slave trade to writing Amazing Grace and working with William Wilberforce to abolish it. Think of the Welsh Revival of 1904–1905, when whole communities were transformed — even the coal-pit donkeys had to be retrained because their handlers stopped swearing at them!

How does this change happen? Through preaching — through people telling others about Jesus. As Paul writes, God's purposes are "brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me." If you want to see society changed, talk to people about Jesus.

God Does Not Lie

What if we're faithfully proclaiming the gospel and living godly lives, yet see little response? Does that mean God's plan will fail?

Paul answers this in verse 2: eternal life was promised "before the beginning of time" by a God "who does not lie." This promise predates creation itself — before Adam and Eve, before Rome, before Crete.

We all break promises sometimes. But God does not lie. Consider the flood: God has every right to judge humanity's wickedness, yet the rainbow stands as a permanent reminder of His promise never to flood the whole earth again. Consider the cross: Jesus went all the way to death because God does not lie about His promise to save His people.

Because eternal life is secure and guaranteed, we don't need to live for the things of this world. That's why Christians can give freely — their time, money, energy — because they're not living for this life alone. That kind of generous, sacrificial love is what made Bethesda Baptist Church attractive to me all those years ago.

The Most Attractive Person Who Ever Lived

Ultimately, we don't pursue being an "attractive church" as some clever strategy or bait-and-switch. We want to be attractive because we love the most attractive person who ever lived — Jesus Christ.

We become like what we love. Jesus said:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, for I am gentle and humble in heart."

His heart is full of sacrificial, life-giving love, grace, peace, righteousness, and joy. Even if no one ever walked through our doors, is there a better role model to imitate?

Let's resolve to live our lives in imitation of Jesus, and let's grow into being an attractive church together — for the glory of God and for the good of this lost world.