Less than 24 hours after I published my previous blog, I was sitting in chapel, listening to the guest speaker who happened to be talking about Reaching th Unredeemed. In his message he mentioned how the church tends to not connect with the culture around them which actually keeps them from bringing people to Christ! (pretty much exactly what I wrote about yesterday!) The speaker quoted Martin Luther King Jr. when he said this: "11 o'clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week." Dr. King said this a few decades ago, but sadly, the truth of the statement still remains.
In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, The apostle Paul is explaining to the Christians of Corinth how he changed in order to connect with the culture or environment with whom he was dealing. Now that does not mean he conformed his actions or conduct as a Christian. He did not compromise the word of God. He lived as a Christian and did what was right in the eyes of God.
So I guess my question still remains... What do we do now? How can we step out of our cultural and social comfort zones and connect with the people who are not like us?
I wish I had a good answer to that question. I don't really know yet. But I do know that God is tugging on my heart about this. It is hitting me from every direction. My prayer is that when an opportunity comes my way to address this situation, I do not let it fly right by and miss my chance.
About Me
- Joe D.
- Cincy, Ohio, United States
- Im an "average joe" surviving college, loving my life, loving my girl, and trying to live for Christ.
1 comment:
Joe, this is an interesting blog. This is something that a lot of people are asking these days. I think one of the most crucial things is that we all need to think like missionaries. We may not be out of the country, but we need to look at the people in our communities and figure out what makes them tick, how they speak, what values they have, etc. Then we need to develop a plan to reach them. This is where churches are failing miserably. We're not meeting physical "felt" needs which often open the door for sharing the message of Christ with them. Too many churches are comfortable with who they already have and neglect those who aren't connected to Christ and the church yet. We need to shatter that ungodly thinking and challenge people to be externally focused, not internally. There is a book "Externally Focused Church" that is good talking about some ways local churches can do this. The main thing is that we can't lose sight that we're called to make disciples. That doesn't mean just teaching those we already have, but reaching out to non-believers as well to help them begin their faith journey. Keep your mind working on this thought process and you'll hopefully make some good headway early on in ministry to be a disciple maker. We have too many "Christians" and not enough committed disciples of Jesus in our churches these days.
Love ya, bro!
Chris <><
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