I'm really enjoying my current read "Radical Reformission" by Mark Driscoll. I'm being challenged in my reading of this book about my "ideas" on how to reach people effectively. While telling a story about a church that once had a weekend attendance of nearly 9,000 and dwindled down to 100, Mark explains how this church was stuck in a rut. Here's a little nugget:
"The result of traditionalism is a Christianity that has all of the right answers to all of the wrong questions, because the questions that were once pressing are no longer being asked. The dying church I mentioned desired to attract the multitude of non-Christians who lived close to them, so they hosted a debate between an atheist and a Christian. They went to great expense only to have no one from the community attend. Why? Because the church did not know that atheism, popular a generation or two ago, is virtually dead today. This church believed that people are either Christians or atheists and because they didn't know their neighbors, they wrongly assumed that, since their neighbors were not Christians, they must be atheists. Actually, their neighbors were very spiritual people who spent great amounts of time praying but had no idea to whom."
Thinking outside my "traditional" box is a challenge at times. What I think and believe works may not really be working for the rest of the world. Do I conform my approach to reach them? Or do I attempt to change the world into believing what I think? The world is a fast changing place...we need a church that continually thinks outside the "traditional" box. Are you open to change?
-Babu
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