Perry Noble points us to Steven Furtick blasting church hoppers/church shoppers like I've never seen it done before. I was fired up by his comments. On the other hand, I have good friends who have struggled with finding the right place where God is calling them to worship, grow, and serve. There's a line between a genuine spiritual struggle and a crassly consumerist attitude toward church.
The best approach for churches is to reach out and welcome everyone with all of their experiences, sins, mistakes, bad hair, doubts, fears, body odor, struggles, biases, broken relationships, addictions, questions, emotions, mental illness, inappropriate behavior ... and yes, even warped attitudes towards church. We start with people wherever they are. And then, pay close attention here, we must rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to work through our teaching, worship, service, and deep Christian community to transform them. No doubt some of those people have been church goers for years, yet they haven't learned even the basics of Christian discipleship. Instead of giving up and calling them out, let's call them up to a richer, fuller, deeper understanding of what Jesus asks of them. To be clear, I'm talking about starting with people where they are, but not being complacent about letting them stay there.
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1 comment:
Your conclusion kind of sounds like the approach that Jesus had, meeting people where they are and encouraging them to do more.
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