Tuesday, November 06, 2012
Not Either/Or - Both/And
Christian Post:
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What's more important? Reaching the lost or growing the reached? Over the past two weeks, the ongoing debate between discipleship and evangelism took center stage during one megachurch's Code Orange Revival.This is not an either/or question! It's pretty simple really. The church is the body of believers, so the church ministers to the believers, the believers add to the church. Put another way, "growing the reached" results in "reaching the lost." Biologically, babies cannot make babies...make sense? The problem is threefold. One, a lot of Christian babies do not want to grow up, so the leadership feels like they have to do something. Two, it is easier to reach the lost that grow the reached. Three, those numbers create a spotlight and spotlight's are just flat-out cool things. Let's look at these in reverse order. The spotlight problem is indicative of the bigger problem. If you need the spotlight you are not mature - keep reading. Just as it is easier for teens to just go ahead and make babies, it is easier for the church to keep reaching out. Problem is, eventually we will run out of grown-ups (grandparents if you will) and the babies will have big problems on their hands. Finally, the thing to do when babies want to stay babies is to help those that want to to grow up. There is nothing like a older sibling to call the kids forward. Not to mention the fact that the ones that do grow up will make more babies - that's what adults do. The road to reaching the lost lies down the path of growing the reached. It really is as simple as that. At least if your object truly is evangelism and not just the spotlight.
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