Our guest on Tuesday night was Rev. Chris Freet, author of A New Look at Hospitality as a Key to Missions, but we were talking about his church’s approach to Christian education. Chris prefers the word “discipleship.”
What about a “no” to a “Sunday School hour,” and a strong “yes” to small groups to meet outside the context of the church building?
by Rev. Dr. Robert R. LaRochelle
Current data indicates that an increasing number of Americans identify themselves as ‘unchurched’. This includes not only those who, in their adult life, do not go to church, but also a great number who were not raised within a church tradition. While it seems to me that more conservative Christian churches have had considerable success attracting good numbers of these individuals, mainline churches, including those who identify as progressive, seem to lag behind. In my area of the country, this has certainly been my impression.
In a brief article, I cannot delve into all of the reasons or potential strategies for changing this situation. In considering the issue, however, I would like to make these suggestions:
Finally and, tying this all together, is my strong belief that churches have to get VERY INTENTIONAL about reaching out to the unchurched. My suggestion to the reader is that you do whatever you can to make this a real priority in your church. Do what you can to discuss and raise consciousness about this issue.
I would appreciate your comments!
Rev. Dr. Bob LaRochelle is Pastor at Christ the King Lutheran Church, Windsor, Connecticut
Follow him on Twitter at @REVDRBOBL
Follow Christ the King Lutheran @CTKWindsor
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[Editor’s Note: This is another post in our series of “Why I changed my mind.”]
by Elgin Hushbeck
I have changed my mind many times, often quite drastically. The most drastic was probably my journey from Atheist to Christian. But that took many years and many phases. One part of that journey was a softening in my attitude towards the Bible. This occurred while I was in the Air Force working on Minuteman missiles which brought me in contact with a lot of different people. Minuteman missiles were scattered across the country side, and so to work on them involved a lot of drive time. My team member and I would load up a truck, pick up a guard and drive out to the missile site, driving 1-2 hours each way on average. As a result, there was plenty of time to talk.
Most of the time the discussion was on more mundane topics such as sports, but from time to time I we would get a guard who was a Christian and the talk would turn to religion. When that happened often the sparks would fly.
Few of the Christians I would talk to actually knew very much about the Bible other than citing a few verses they had memorized. When I would point out the contradictions or problems from the list I had made, for the most part, they had never even heard of these potential problems, much less did they have any answers, other than to say that the Bible was the Word of God and was to be believed despite what might seem to be problems.
All of this reinforced my belief in the error of Christianity, as it seemed a faith one could believe in only if one did not look too close, or ask too many question.
Still, from time to time I would come across a Christian who knew something about their faith and the Bible. I would run down my list of potential problems, and they would actually have an answer that could stand up to my questioning. When that happened I was never too concerned, as there were many more items on my list and I would simply move to the next item.
When someone did raise a serious objection to one of the things on my list of problems, however, it would tend to stick with me, and I would seek a way around it. While sometimes I would find some weaknesses in their proposed solution, there were also times when I had to admit, if only to myself later, that they had a point, and my alleged problem was not really a problem after all.
As a result, over time, my list of problems and contradictions got smaller and smaller. In addition two other things happened. First, with each problem dealt with, the credibility of the critics correspondingly suffered. After all, if the critics were wrong on these alleged problems and contradictions in the Bible, perhaps they were wrong on the others as well. Second, my diminishing list of errors was being replaced by a growing respect for the reliability of the Bible. I did not yet believe the Bible was the Word of God, but I could no longer write it off as simply a collection of myths and legends either.
It was at about this point in my odyssey that I had one of the more significant of these discussions. I think this was the only time we had this particular guard, and unfortunately his name has long since been forgotten. He was different than many of the other Christians I had met in the way he listened to my challenges without any confrontation in his responses. It wasn’t that he knew how to answer my remaining challenges all that much, but he did do something, none of the others did. He offered to set up a meeting with someone who he said could better answer my questions and I agreed.
This someone was an officer at the base, and we talked for several hours one evening. I explained my spiritual journey to that point and we talked about some the remaining problems I saw with Christianity and the Bible. He was able to provide some answers. On a few others, such as why would a loving god allow evil, I was not convinced. But he did show me a different side of Christianity even when his answers were not completely satisfying. He showed me that Christianity and the Bible were something an intelligent thinking person could take seriously. Even if I did not agree with him, I had to respect him as someone who had thought seriously about his faith.
When I left that evening, he encouraged me to continue my journey and seemed oddly sure and confident as to where that journey would lead me even if I had not reached it yet. I was still over a year from becoming a Christian. And even becoming a Christians was in many ways just a beginning of a new journey.
[slideshow_deploy id=’2411′] Click on any book for more information and ordering
Energion author Heath T
aws, who is also Director of Youth and Children’s ministries at Spring Run Presbyterian Church in Midlothian, VA, challenges us with some thoughts he had while visiting the Redwood trees in California.
When I think about these trees, I think about how we should be doing evangelism. All of us know someone in our Church or in our friend circles who is like a giant redwood. That person stretches their roots out and supports the weaker trees in the Church or in the community. Not only that, but they provide water and nourishment for the trees who are going through dry times in their lives. They seek out the trees who are disconnected from the root system, and they go after them. They keep offering their roots, they keep offering their water, and ultimately, they want to connect them to the source tree.
Read the whole thing. What do you think? Is this a good model for evangelism?
Pastor Patrick Badstibner is founder of World Prayr (on Twitter). Pat has been providing us with a monthly blog post, but I’m pleased to be able to present this blog post, the first in a series of four weekly posts by Pat, to our Energion Publications family.
Check the World Prayr organization and the World Prayr devotional blog as well. You’ll find a dynamic and growing group of Christians who are practicing the second great command, to love their neighbors as themselves, and thereby practicing the first command as well.
First you should know this is a four part series and I pray you will take the time to follow along and keep up. With each part I promise to bring home a point and prayerfully lead into the next part of the series. For those who take the time to read any part, let me thank you ahead of time. For those souls who are brave enough to follow all four parts, I shall pray God gives you an extra blessing covering your eyes.
[The series will be published here weekly, with each part appearing on a Monday. – ed]
I want to take a look at three different sayings that seem to be popular among those that refer to themselves as pastors today, while at the same time visiting with some friends named Dave and Paula (well the names have been changed to protect the innocent but the situations are true) and how those sayings might play out in other scenarios of life. While also looking at maybe some erroneous teachings or views as it comes to the subject of discipleship in the church.
Let me tell you just a bit about my friends, Dave and Paula. Dave and Paula own a business in which they own three paint stores in a very busy metropolitan area. Their stores are surrounded by old standards doing business in the same old way with the same methods and techniques that have been used for over thirty years or longer. Dave and Paula have done quite well, obviously since they have three stores now– in spite of being surrounded by these large well supported corporate retail giants. They have used updated methods and techniques to reach, build, and sustain their customer base.
We are not going to look at just their business though; we are also going to look and see if their obvious business savvy has translated into personal wisdom. Then as I said we are going to take a minute and look at some popular sayings we may find being said by pastors today.
Recently Dave and Paula had a meeting with some of their store managers and it was brought to their attention that customer referral sales were down twenty-five percent. This was not good news to Dave and Paula as they had built, and still believed that their business was built, on referrals and they had no desire to be in the addition business but rather wanted to be in the multiplication business. However, Dave’s answer shocked their managers as he said, “We have the systems, market studies, everything in place and the numbers show that we are growing by leaps and bounds. Perhaps we cannot help it if our numbers are down for repeat business and customer referral. Let’s keep adding numbers and we will not have to worry about the rest. After all it is not our fault if we have the systems in place and people are not coming back as often. Let’s just keep creating radical methods of getting new customers in and stay on a steady course with an occasional twitch here and there. Sound Good!” Funny though, it left all Dave’s managers going “hmmmmm!” Does it really sound good?
Now what do you think? Is Dave’s advice sound to his management team?
Funny Thing I read recently where a pastor said “We have the systems in place, it is not our fault if they are not growing.”
“Ah! Pat you say this is a church not a business.”
How right you are! Only two issues:
18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
is not telling others how to be saved, or just bring others to Christ or go grab those who aren’t buying yet. It is, however, “go make disciples.”
*A disciple is someone buying hook, line, and sicker and whose life is being immersed in the truth of the Word of God; such that they in turn are producing additional disciples.
Ah! Heresy, Heresy, that’s it! I am not going to read any more how Pat gets off with such nonsense. I did not say it, God did, several times in His word; let me show you a couple of instances:
2. Wherever scripture refers to the office of pastor, or title, it refers to words like shepherd, overseer, and elder.
Now, a question: Is a shepherd’s first job is to concentrate by getting more sheep or to concentrate on protecting, guiding, and helping grow to maturity the sheep he already has?
If we define an organization, ministry, or church that focuses heavily on adding numbers and reaching those that are not in their organization, ministry, or church as being in the addition business, then we may define and state that one whose leadership focuses heavily on impacting and changing the lives, or on building its current base as being in the multiplication business. We state they are in the multiplication business because they are building those currently involved in order that they may reach those who are not.
So having looked at what a Shepherd’s main job is do you see any similarities between Dave’s advice to his team and what a lot of pastors today are saying? Do you feel Dave is in the addition business or the multiplication business as it pertains to building and growing his business?
Is the church you’re leading or going to in the multiplication business or in the addition business? Are you going to church just because you like the music, you come out emotionally feeling good, or are you going to a church that is radically taking the same steps to bring to maturity those who are currently in church as they are those who are not in church.
If part one made no sense to you wait for part two I promise as we move forward in this series the message of the series and the points of the message will become clearer and make more sense if they do not as of yet.
Or did you expect me to reveal all the points in part one?
Part two: Can we really go deeper without making clones (coming July 5).
This question is triggered by this essay on Dave Black Online, which is quoted on our Energion Publications blog.
Let’s look at the question from three angles:
1) Should the gospel commission be supreme?
2) Is it supreme in your church and mine?
3) How could it be made supreme and what would that look like in practice?