in the post he posed the question:
"How does one get (get is a poor word, but it will suffice)
unchurched people into relationship with Jesus?
In the past I've always answered with cliche answers like "Try to live like Jesus", or "If we only had/did -fill the blank- then people would come" or... Though there is truth to some of that, the reality is those answers are ways of getting around the fact that Jesus should permeate so much more than just our Sunday mornings, or even our moral lifestyle. There is a definite difference between churches that are obviously growing and churches that are not. I don't know what the reasons are, but certain churches grow like wildfire, they touch lives, they exist as ambassadors of Gods grace and hope. Other churches have the same message and yet do not touch their community. What's the difference? How are the growing churches getting people in their doors? and why don't all churches do that? "
my answer was as follows:
"First, stop calling them “unchurched.” This is giving you the wrong idea all together. Maybe bringing them to church is not the first step. I think the first step is loving them. Go to where they are and love them. Meet their needs in a physical, nitty gritty, dirty way. Love. Them. Christ walked among the people, healed them and blessed them and met their needs. Show them this. Build relationships with them. Show them that you care for them and love them. Then introduce them to your community. But perhaps not your formal worship. Instead invite them to a book group, an art show put on by your church community, a yard work day at the home of an elderly person, whatevah. Show them that your community truly cares for them and WHY (Christ). Live the resurrection life in front of them. Show them what it looks like to have Christ come in (with his body—that’s YOU) and redeem the world. show them that your community will not judge them, will welcome them, will give them a safe place to be themselves to ask questions and to utilize their talents and abilities. Let them know that if they have a passion for social action (i.e. working with refugees) that your community of Christ followers would love to work with them on setting something up and giving them an outlet for their talents to be put to use for Christ. So many people who do not have relationship with Christ wont go to church because they have misconceptions, have only met hypocrites, don’t resonate with what happens in the formal service, don’t see how “church” really matters in the real world, and don’t understand that to be a Christ follower means having a relationship with the creator and living in a community of believers. Show them these things. Love them. Help them to begin to build relationships with other believers and then with Christ and then . . . just maybe . . . they will be willing to come to the formal worship service on Sunday morning. Sometimes becoming “churched” is the last step in building a relationship with Christ."
will you join the conversation (either here or on my friend's blog)?
peace.
posted by tabitha jane @ 11:48 AM
Comments: 2
