Jesus was much more about going to where people are than getting them to come to Him. He was always “going”.
Imagine if Jesus were to come back to one of our churches today. I wonder how we would handle His ministry. If we followed our current strategies we would find a building – big enough and either churchy looking enough or “cool” enough to begin the invitation strategies. Then the billboards, yard signs, and mass mails would go up and out. Catchy slogans would tease with the benefits of coming to church. We would tell all our people to go and invite everyone to come…well not to come see Jesus…that doesn’t sell here so good anymore. But not to worry, we know people, and if we just capitalize on their own life improvement desires – better sex, better marriage, better children, better friends – then we can show them that Jesus is the way they get all that.
And Jesus says, “Then what?” “Well, we just wait for Sunday”.
There are several observations to make here.
· People doing this can have very good motives. There desire is to win the lost. But the methods don’t square with what God actually told us to do – “Go, make disciples”.
· This strategy is failing miserably to save America – Even among those who actually are successful at filling their church.
· The reason Jesus told us to “go” has more to do with the relational aspect of the gospel than the accumulation of bodies somewhere. It is in that one-on-one experience of you sharing Jesus and life with a lost person, that the good news of a God who loves them comes to life. Mass marketing strategies minus people sharing faith, depersonalize our message.
· Catering to a “benefit” driven society does not produce life transformation.
· That revolving door at church has a lot to do with the bait-and-switch people experience. There is never a billboard or mass mail including “how you can serve God”, “how you can give your money to help the Kingdom”.
· Could it be true that our greater motivation is to build our church and we are using Jesus as support material?
These are the kinds of things I have been evaluating at Woodland for some time now. It is the thinking behind DontComeToOurChurch.com. So my criticisms are not for others any more than for myself. I am choosing to make some changes in all this. How about you?
3 responses so far ↓
Larry Markwell // September 23, 2009 at 12:02 am |
“Go make disciples” hasn’t went far in 2000 years. Sadly failure is a chosen option in life. Not a total failure but selective. God didn’t create anything imperfect. We can punish “ourselves” for the rest of this life for mistakes we have made but it will not accomplish much. We will make it to the Kingdom, not for building gathering halls, not for “collecting lost souls”, not for doing deeds but only because GOD says we are welcome or not. America’s failures are due too a large variety of religions and races trying to figure out what is right and wrong. We are a very unevenly yoked country. The country has been pushing God out for a long time.
Mary Lou // September 25, 2009 at 8:44 pm |
If Jesus came back to our church today, I would follow him to the murky waters to hear him speak. That, I feel, would be a most rewarding experience. I would follow him to the desert if he asked me to. I would hope that he was not looking for a beautiful church building, I would hope that he was not caring about slogans, banners, catchy phrases, only those who dressed well or had money. I would like to follow him to those who could not make it to church because of illness, depression, loneliness, etc. I would follow him to the lost and confused and would willingly be a disciple of his and learn and in turn disciple others.
I want to find those that don’t know Jesus and share how he has saved my life through his grace and continues to do.
The Church At Woodland has to stay focused on those that don’t know Jesus and teaching his disciples how to bring them to Christ.
raginggenius // September 30, 2009 at 2:03 am |
My first thought was “I wonder how many “containters” Jesus went into vs. out door teaching?” I have also been wondering if our mission is just plain wrong. By that I mean, we constantly say we are after “the lost”. I have only encountered one person in my life that hasn’t head the name Jesus, the guy was from Oregon. What I do find is people that know of Jesus, but would rather live their life on their terms because their idea of Christian living doesn’t stack up to what they had in mind for living. Instead of calling people lost, maybe we should be asking people to stop rejecting Christ. We live in the Bible belt and everyone in our neck of the woods has heard of Jesus. I do realize that “knowing” him is different. I personally have been racking my brain on why Christianity isn’t growing in America, those are just some of my thoughts. I do think that church is ran just like any other buisness in America, and that’s part of the problem.