Bill Reichart highlights this quote from Tim Keller's new book. The question that the last sentence raises is an excellent one... one that most "attractional" style churches ignore.
Jesus' teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren't appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we'd like to think.via bill ReichartTim Keller, The Prodigal God
Comments
I know very well my Shepherd's voice and He knows mine.
Might other believers make the same claim?
I don't think this means that our contemporary churches have got it all wrong - if they are indeed supporting and executing ministries that do as Jesus did, even ultimately bringing those people to our churches.
That said, our churches shouldn't repel new believers, so in that sense, I agree. But we certainly shouldn't measure a church's success by how well it attracts or relates to non-believers.
What I do agree with though, is that we should, as indidivuals, be primarily focused on reaching out and ministering to those who don't know Christ, who are in need, and are the outcast or oppressed (in whatever manner). That's certainly what Jesus favoured over ministering to the religious. He came not to heal the healthy, but the sick - that doesn't mean we don't need doctors to help maintain the health of the healthy (churches and pastors that minister to believers and Christ-followers) :)
I don't need to go looking for 'people'...He brings them to me!
If there is a sense of lack, or want...maybe ya gotta stop hiding inside the fortress walls and quit picking the lint out of each others navels.
Yet - I think there is a sales problem here: You cannot sell something that you do not believe in. (ouch)
the secret...the real secret...is you need more flannel graph!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCPr2qG_rtY&eurl