Too busy keeping people out?
It’s not about you. It was never about you.
It is so much larger than you.
What is it?
The church…
Nobody likes to be told that the music isn’t about them or the preaching isn’t for them.
We have manipulated what church is supposed to be.
We’ve made it all about us and not about others.
Take your hat off, it’s irreverant.
Pray this way or that way.
Shut your whiney kid up in the nursery.
Don’t bring coffee into our beautiful sanctuary… we want it to smell heavenly not like hell served burnt coffee.
Enough with what we like or we want.
God designed the church on a much bigger scale than you and I.
It’s about our guests.
It’s about the people who have yet to enter your sanctuary, auditorium, warehouse or wherever else you meet.
It’s about the community you are situated in, the district you may belong to and the nation you reside.
It’s about the world that surrounds you, which is desperate for God to work a miracle in their dire situations.
If all we do is cater to our current people base… all we will attract is the same. People jumping from one church to the next, consuming but never giving.
Let’s build a culture in our churches where the people in our grocery stores, walking their dogs in the park and painting graffiti on fences are more important than reaching our own kind.
Give an honest evaluation: Do you create a church culture that values the outsider?
* Photo Credit: Morten Rand-Hendriksen (Flickr Creative Commons)
Hi Justin! I’m Raye Cage just became a member of the tentblogger community today.
Several years ago our church read The Purpose Driven Life. I remember being so shocked to read on the first page in chapter one that “It’s not about you”. Up until that time I thought it was all about me. You’re right Justin, we need to build a culture that embraces all of mankind. I call it getting real. And when we do get real with ourselves, reaching out to others will be second nature.
Thanks for commenting Raye! I agree we need a culture that looks to others before ourselves. It’s tough… it goes against everything “human”. One step at a time; one person at a time.