Friday, September 17, 2010
Do People Want To Hear?
Milt Stanley via Jeff Weddle, points out an essential truth:
But let's explore this fact on a different level - what does it say about how we do church? The common theme today is that we want to build church's that are "inviting." But if people do not really want to hear what we have to offer, it seems to me something that would invite them would be at best a distraction, if not a misrepresentation. Is the best we can offer bait-and-switch evangelism?
I don;t think so - I think the church can be winsome, but I do not think that winsomeness will come by looking like the world. It will come by meeting the world where it is but being radically different in it.
I will never forget the first time I saw the television show "Hill Street Blues." Many in the blogosphere are not old enough to remember that shows original run - but it was a marked departure in how television was done - it was new and it was very different - and it was attractive.
That's what the church ought to be - different, very different - and very attractive.
SO, what do you think that looks like?
There’s this whole side of the Bible we ignore. A whole side that says the gate is strait, few enter. Men love darkness and hate the light and God’s Word is light. If you follow Christ (the Word made flesh) the world will hate you because it hated Him. All the prophets were ignored and killed. The Word became flesh and was rejected and killed.Weddle's right and his approach to this is that to tell pastors the contrary as encouragement is to ultimately produce discouragement - and I think he is right about that.
Who are we trying to kid? It’s as if John the Baptist’s head was not cut off, or that Peter was not crucified upside down, or that Paul was not imprisoned and executed. Why do we pretend that if we simply preach the Word people will come out of the woodwork to hear it? It’s not true. It never has been.
But let's explore this fact on a different level - what does it say about how we do church? The common theme today is that we want to build church's that are "inviting." But if people do not really want to hear what we have to offer, it seems to me something that would invite them would be at best a distraction, if not a misrepresentation. Is the best we can offer bait-and-switch evangelism?
I don;t think so - I think the church can be winsome, but I do not think that winsomeness will come by looking like the world. It will come by meeting the world where it is but being radically different in it.
I will never forget the first time I saw the television show "Hill Street Blues." Many in the blogosphere are not old enough to remember that shows original run - but it was a marked departure in how television was done - it was new and it was very different - and it was attractive.
That's what the church ought to be - different, very different - and very attractive.
SO, what do you think that looks like?
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