Check out this video of Michael Frost:
What do you think? How do we respond to all those folks who are not interested, turned off or repelled by your church?
It seems to me we have a choice. We can be defensive and say there is something wrong with those folks. Or we can ask how can we reach them? If we can't reach them, who can? And how can we help them in their mission to those our church will never reach?
I believe the church of the future is not an either/or proposition. It is neither simple church as we know it nor something radically different. In fact this polarity gets in the way of a more deeper issue. The church of the future will at its heart live a very simple idea; we exist for others, particularly and primarily those outside our church. That simple idea shapes everything else. It changes all the questions. In that simple shift all we do becomes focused outside of ourselves. The kind of faith community we build together, the way we live our individual lives, and what we do with our resources will all be shaped by that simple idea.
Maybe this is too simplistic. Or just maybe the answer to our struggles is that simple.
What do you think?
Mike
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1 comment:
One of the things I'm thinking through right now is this in/out division that we make in the church. On the one hand, I think it's helpful because for far too long, we as a church have been focused on caring for those inside our doors at the expense of those on the outside.
On the other hand...did Jesus make these "in/out" distinctions?
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