Here's a quote from the blog and a link if you want to read it all: Mosaic
What is happening across the world and here at home is that there is an army of cross cultural missionaries who have become the new leaders of the church. Their calling isn’t to pastor churches that focus on the happiness of its members, but to mobilize the church for the purpose of fulfilling God’s mission of reconciling the world to himself. We used to send our missionaries out and it kept the mission a safe distance from us. Some how they broke back in and decided they were not going without us. At Mosaic we have no members, only missionaries. There is nothing to join except a community on a mission. We have little patience for self indulgent spirituality that insists on everything being about us.
I was at a seminar (at the Champaign Country Club of all places) and listened to a presenter who asked this question: What is keeping your church from reaching the next 100 people for Jesus Christ?
Certainly there are alot of answers to that question. But I think it starts with one thing: A passion for the lost. We are missing a compelling vision to reach those who aren't connected to Jesus Christ.
Don't miss the point here: This doesn't mean we don't do anything for ourselves. A part of our connecting people into the redeemed community of Christ is to actually have that community to connect them into. We are called to be a set apart, loving, self-less community of Christ followers. But the defining trait of that community is our MISSION of seeking to invite and draw others into that community of grace in Jesus Christ.
I'm convicted by this idea. In case you haven't noticed.
What is keeping us from reaching the next 100 people for Jesus Christ?
What would it look like for us to chase after them?
Comments are welcomed!
I wish I had an answer, but this is exactly what we need to be asking ourselves at every turn. We should ask, try to answer, honestly evaluate the results, tinker with it seeking to do better, and go at it again. When we stop doing this, we turn our backs on what God has specifically charged us to do, turing his Church into a social club.
ReplyDeleteAmen Scotty!
ReplyDeleteSo give it a shot...what might some of the answers be?
I went to church alone once when I was 17, long after my parents dropped off the roles. I didn't feel welcome, and didnt go back until a couple years ago. I'm 43 now. No one welcomed me at the door, and they rather gruffly asked me to move after I sat down because "we dont sit on that side of the church for the early service." Anyway, I find it curious that from about age 7 to the present (again, Im 43) only one single person has ever invited me to go to Church with them. One. And to be honest, thats one more outside of my own family than I have invited.
ReplyDelete