Reaching Out - Past the Pews
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| From Morguefile |
Yesterday Paul Peters* wrote this great post on his blog about who he wants to see in church. You know, the unchurched people of the community. He says he wants his church to be a place where people who aren't likely to go to church...go to church. I get that. That's awesome.
And that will get you in a lot of trouble. Oh, he's ready for it. And I bet most of Church180** is ready for it too. But there will always be some who just want what always has been or what makes them comfortable or what makes them happy.
I read a great article a while back about what the new worship wars should be: older people demanding electric guitars and loud drums in worship, telling the sound guy to "turn it up" and young people asking for hymns and the organ. You know - thinking of someone else besides yourself in worship. Wishing the service was just a little more to someone else's liking so that maybe that person would come to church and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, be drawn into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Peters quotes a book, "Who our church is reaching is more important than how many our church is reaching."
And that has to be true - reaching into the other churches to find the unhappy there will only bring, well, dissatisfied church shoppers to your pews***, not transformed lives to your community.
Craig Groeschel said at Catalyst one year, "To reach the people no one else is reaching, we have to do the things no one else is doing."
Now, I don't know what that means in Pittsfield and Tidioute exactly - but I know what people are already doing that is NOT reaching people who are far from God. And so we can see around us who we need to reach out to.
So...who are we reaching? What are we willing to pay? What cost is too much? How uncomfortable am I willing to be to reach people?
*I have no idea who Paul Peters is, but our worship leader recommended his blog - and now I check it every couple days to see if there's anything new, 'cause it's always worth reading.
**AWESOME Church name and by the looks of their website it looks like a pretty awesome church.
***Or chairs, or couches, or beanbags, or bar stools, or whatever - we don't judge you by your choice of seating - we judge you by your choice of music - oh, and what clothes you wear - and which translation you use...by the way, Pre-Trib or Post-Trib?
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