Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Let's discuss some attitudes toward outreach, community evangelism, personal work etc. that can lead to the growth of the church, both spiritually and physically.
This first attitude would be hard for me to believe if it had not been said directly to me. Many years ago, I lived near a congregation of the church, I did not attend there, but I knew many people there and of course wanted to be of any help I could be. I asked one of the leaders of that congregation if when their meeting came around if I could join them in handing out flyers or tracts up and down the road and invited people to the meeting? He said, "We don't do that." Now a church certainly doesn't have to pass out flyers up and down the road to let people know of a meeting. There are many other good ways. It was the rest of the sentence that dismayed me. He added, "they know we are here". We attended the meeting and frankly were impressed with the number of members they had at that time. Today however, it is a different story. It probably isn't surprizing to you that church is only a "shell" of what it used to be. Sadly this attitude, "They know we're here " is still around. Ask yourself would you want to attend a church with the attitude, "They know we're here"? You can only imagine how a person who visits a church like that for the first time would feel. I doubt they would be back. It is true the message of Jesus is" You all come", but it is also His message, "YOU All GO!!!" "I write unto you of all that Jesus began to do and teach." Don
This first attitude would be hard for me to believe if it had not been said directly to me. Many years ago, I lived near a congregation of the church, I did not attend there, but I knew many people there and of course wanted to be of any help I could be. I asked one of the leaders of that congregation if when their meeting came around if I could join them in handing out flyers or tracts up and down the road and invited people to the meeting? He said, "We don't do that." Now a church certainly doesn't have to pass out flyers up and down the road to let people know of a meeting. There are many other good ways. It was the rest of the sentence that dismayed me. He added, "they know we are here". We attended the meeting and frankly were impressed with the number of members they had at that time. Today however, it is a different story. It probably isn't surprizing to you that church is only a "shell" of what it used to be. Sadly this attitude, "They know we're here " is still around. Ask yourself would you want to attend a church with the attitude, "They know we're here"? You can only imagine how a person who visits a church like that for the first time would feel. I doubt they would be back. It is true the message of Jesus is" You all come", but it is also His message, "YOU All GO!!!" "I write unto you of all that Jesus began to do and teach." Don
# posted by Missions with Don&Rosemary @ 1:47 PM 
