Are We, the Church, Missing it?
At times, I feel that there is a barrier with the unchurched and the churched. A barrier with those far from God and with the churched. A barrier with those outside of the four walls of the church and with those inside the four walls of the church. What an enormous challenge which has great possibilities!
I just recently picked up the book called "No Perfect People Allowed" by John Burke. It is a book that helps followers of Christ rethink how they do ministry when it comes to reaching today's people. Here is what stuck out in chapter one.
- "Unless Christians leading the church in America change, and unless the church begins living out the magnetic attractive force Jesus had on the world, the Christian church in America will be completely marginalized within decades." John Burke
- John Burke described a small group out of Gateway Church that took smoking breaks. I laughed as I read that cause it sounds just like the Monday night coffee shop group in Royal Oak.
- "Our goal cannot simply be a timid, powerless survival; it must be the role that Christ called the Church to play, that of a loving, authoritative, healing, and compelling influence upon the world...lacking such a turnabout, we may rightfully anticipate the virtual disappearance of the Christian Church in this nation." George Barna
- John Burke stated that the US has more unchurched people than most in the world which we are not aware of.
- We as committed followers of Christ need to jump in. We need to jump into the mess of cultural America. We need to die to our comfortable churchy lives and stop gathering with just followers of Christ. We need to engage with the unchurched and the lost. We need dive into the lives of others. We need to make Jesus visible to those who need it.
- "God is responsible for the growth, for changed hearts, but the soil is the responsibility of the leaders and the Christ-followers who make up that church." John Burke
- John Burke believes that it all starts with the leaders in the church in order to be effective. He stated, "Yet all too often, leaders implement new 'seeker' services or 'postmodern' services with cool music, candles, art, aesthetics, or whatever the latest conference hypes up, but miss the most essential nutrients for healthy Body-growth."
- I have personally seen the above quote in action. Where others tend to copy methods and strategies from other churches or by what they read in the latest postmodern book yet they struggle when it comes to church growth or reaching the lost. It is where one looks to see what others are doing when it comes to outreaches or creative elements. Then, they bring it to their community hoping it would draw people in. The outreach ends up attracting the "churched" instead of who Jesus has called us to reach.
- He stressed that the people in the church are what matters. It is not the sweet hip music, the atmosphere, the edgy look, or even the movie clips. It is the people!
Yesterday, I met a middle-aged woman at the salon that asked me about the book that I was reading. I explained it the best I could in one minute. This woman replied to me with many other women listening, "That is exactly what my girlfriends and I were talking about this past weekend. It's been years since we have been to a church."
Today, I met a young man in a coffee shop who had the Bible cracked open and was journaling. We ended up engaging in conversation. I found out that he is a solid man of God yett he is unchurched. He was on staff at a huge church in the area and transitioned out. I asked him why and he stated, "I was convicted." This man has been unchurched for awhile because he feels as if the church is just missing the mark right now.
It has been such an eye opener as I cracked open this book and had a conversation with those two individuals! Are we, the Church, missing it?
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