Should your church be turned on her side? Or maybe upside down? Perhaps your congregation hums along and reaches people through various ministries. No need for improvement. However, a few churches need a new position.
“It will cost too much money.”
“We like it the way it is.”
“If the Lord had wanted it that way, He would have done it
that way.”
Have you heard these comments from people in your
congregation? Refusals to try a new
method often meet resistance, but if the old ways aren’t working, why not try
the new?
Here’s a book by pastor Mark Buchanan to make you think
about the way your church functions.
'These men who have turned the world
upside down have come here also.' — Acts 17:6 That was the startled cry, circa
50 AD, from a hastily assembled mob in Thessalonica. Paul and Silas had been
arrested for preaching the gospel. They were viewed as revolutionaries,
dangerous men who were upsetting the status quo and inciting riots. But they
were just two ordinary men, walking in the power of God, sharing a simple
message of his love and grace. It's been a while since we've seen the likes of
this. If you ever find church boring or you believe something is missing from
our churches today, you aren't alone. Mark Buchanan believes there is a visible
gap between the life Jesus offered to us and the life we're living, between the
church Jesus envisioned and the church we see today. When Jesus announced that
the Kingdom was at hand, this can't be what he meant. Instead of counting
everything loss to be found in Christ, we've made it our priority to be safe
instead of dangerous, nice instead of holy. Author and pastor Mark Buchanan
believes that we need to recover a simple idea: that God meant his church to be
both good news and bad news, an aroma and a stench — a disruptive force to
whoever or whatever opposes the Kingdom of God and a healing, liberating power
to those who seek it.
This is a good book, and I recommend it.
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