Realization 2 I might be going about this the wrong way.
Realization 3 My perception of what God wants might be incorrect, or at least skewed.
Surely Jesus wanted us to be in fellowship with each other. But did he want us to limit ourselves to just congregating in mass numbers on Sundays and maybe some other day of the week? Did he just want us to develop into stellar church folks?
What about this "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone" thingy? Did Jesus intend for outreach to be a encapsulated event done a few times a month by a few volunteers in a soup kitchen, or an after school program or at an old folks home?
Maybe outreach is supposed to be a lifestyle. The early church lived and breathed outreach, especially Paul. Why are we so concerned about bringing and keeping people in, when we are supposed to be going out daily? Not merely social outreach, but reflecting the "Light of World" which Jesus proclaimed himself to be.
How selfish of us to keep this treasure of the Good News to ourselves.
Surely Jesus wanted us to be in fellowship with each other. But did he want us to limit ourselves to just congregating in mass numbers on Sundays and maybe some other day of the week? Did he just want us to develop into stellar church folks?
What about this "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone" thingy? Did Jesus intend for outreach to be a encapsulated event done a few times a month by a few volunteers in a soup kitchen, or an after school program or at an old folks home?
Maybe outreach is supposed to be a lifestyle. The early church lived and breathed outreach, especially Paul. Why are we so concerned about bringing and keeping people in, when we are supposed to be going out daily? Not merely social outreach, but reflecting the "Light of World" which Jesus proclaimed himself to be.
How selfish of us to keep this treasure of the Good News to ourselves.
Realization 4 We've been hiding in the church for far too long.
I see the value in these soup kitchens and after school program, but i think people do it to volunteer and get service time in. I believe God has given everyone a burning heart for a group of people. We are to pour out the love we receive in fellowship from our brothers and sisters in christ and our quiet time to these groups/group. Can everyone in a church have the same burning heart for the same people, i doubt it unless the church has ensured that. That makes going out as a church difficult. My belief is finding the niche (For lack of a better term) God has placed in your heart, find people that he has placed the same passion in their hearts in the church you decide to attend and go out and love/preach the goodnews.
ReplyDeleteWhat I am talking about is a transformation of the way we see people, and the way we regard our lives. Not so much outreach as a mass endeavor by a specific congregation, but as a lifestyle of one who has been touched by Christ. This is the whole premise of 2 Corinthian 5:16-21,
ReplyDelete"16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
Very thoughtful. Bringing the good word to the world is a huge burden, something few people are willing to do.
ReplyDelete