On fire
Man...this guy just keeps posting exactly what I've been thinking. I came into this very cautious and with a guarded perspective because I knew this was going to happen. This post is along the same vein as his last post (which a referenced in my last post)
Our bottom line is that we are all about connecting the disconnected to Jesus. We will always be about this. We aren't about coddling and spoon feeding spiritually fat Christians. At a certain point in the life of Christ follower, they have got to start feeding themselves. They can't expect to come to church "to get their needs met". If this is the case, I'd argue that they aren't mature and possibly don't understand what it really means to follow Jesus. Our aim is to equip you to reach those who are disconnected.
We want Sunday's to be fun and done with a certain level of excellence but we don't do that just so you can invite your friends. We definitely want you to feel confident to invite your friends but when we do something with excellence it's about honoring God, not showing off how good we are. (Trust me...we've got tons of work to do) We see Sunday's as an eqiupping/sending time so that during the week you can be connecting with your friends and eventually connecting them to Jesus. I don't understand how it's the churches' job to share Jesus with your friends/family.
Anyways, read the post and be reminded that we won't back down from the dream that God has put into motion.
Our bottom line is that we are all about connecting the disconnected to Jesus. We will always be about this. We aren't about coddling and spoon feeding spiritually fat Christians. At a certain point in the life of Christ follower, they have got to start feeding themselves. They can't expect to come to church "to get their needs met". If this is the case, I'd argue that they aren't mature and possibly don't understand what it really means to follow Jesus. Our aim is to equip you to reach those who are disconnected.
We want Sunday's to be fun and done with a certain level of excellence but we don't do that just so you can invite your friends. We definitely want you to feel confident to invite your friends but when we do something with excellence it's about honoring God, not showing off how good we are. (Trust me...we've got tons of work to do) We see Sunday's as an eqiupping/sending time so that during the week you can be connecting with your friends and eventually connecting them to Jesus. I don't understand how it's the churches' job to share Jesus with your friends/family.
Anyways, read the post and be reminded that we won't back down from the dream that God has put into motion.
Yep...I agree with you. We definitely do need a community if we are going to connect people to Jesus. There has to be an "us" for this to happen. This requires there to be followers of Jesus in this community.
I guess I just resonate with this guy as a fellow church planter doing a somewhat similar thing. But I agree with you about 'throwing the baby out'. I hope that you feel from us that we don't operate like this (Hi great to meet you...but don't come back). Our goal from day one has been to be as welcoming/hospitable as we know how
My rant was just that it is so utterly important for us to remain outward focused and on those around us. It's far too easy, myself included, for us to start getting caught up in menial things that we blow out of proportion (ex, music style/taste, whether the preaching is verse by verse or topical, other little stuff we don't like.)
I just don't want us to get stuck in the place of becoming "unusable". I know Jesus can use anyone but sometimes we make the choice to stay stuck in our Christian bubble.
We really don't exist for ourselves. We exist for the world and as long as we keep that perspective, we're going to do just fine.
Posted by
Dan Richardson |
3:33 PM