The church has fallen into a bad habit in the USA! We have been sitting back saying to our culture "Come and See" what we have to offer. We have tried to make Christlike disciples by "ATTRACTING" people to the church. We have come to believe that if we had the right building, the perfect music, great preaching, awesome children and youth ministry, stunning multi-media, etc. then the church would be full of people! Somehow we have allowed this American culture of entertainment to penetrate the church, so that we focus so much on our "programs" that we have lost the ability to ENGAGE our CULTURE!
The church is like the Kevin Costner character in the film Field of Dreams being told by a disembodied voice, "If you build it, they will come." In many ways the church can longer have this attitude! The church must start to engage people in the community with the love of Christ. The church is no longer a respected voice in the community! It is deemed as irrelevant and it has lost its place of honor in the community! There was a time in the USA when the church was the center of the community! But at least for me and the church I pastor, the church is just a building to so many in the community. Michael Frost says in his book, The Shaping of Things to Come, "the missional church recognizes that it does not hold a place of honor in its host community and that its missional imperative compels it to move out from itself into that host community as salt and light." (19)
A missional church or a biblical church, is one who engages the community! A missional church has "GO-TO-THEM" mentality! Christians must wake up from their slumber and look around at the harvest field around them. We must start making relationships with people beyond our comfort zones and live out our faith in authentic ways! How do you engage the culture?
1. Pray for your neighbors!
I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. As you make your requests, plead for God’s mercy upon them, and give thanks. 1Tim. 2:1 (NLT)
2. Look for ways to SERVE!
Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and lookat the fields! They are ripe for harvest. John 4:35
3. Develop a relationship with unbelievers!
4. Invest and Invite!
“Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But who can ask Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells him?” Rom. 10:13-14 (LB)
The church will never fulfill the mandate of Christ to make disciples, if we just sit back and wait for people to walk into church on Sunday morning! It will only happen, if we the people of God,
GO TO THEM - ENGAGE CULTURE!
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