Hope Fellowship Community Church

Wow! It has been a while since I have written something. I've been busy reading and thinking...a dangerous combination. I have been reading Good to Great by Jim Collins and The Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger.

Here are some of my latest thoughts...

So over the last few decades, the Christian churches have embraced something called "Seeker-Sensitive" or "Seeker-Focused" services. While I believe that we should be taking the Good News of Jesus Christ to people who do not know him(Seekers), I am not so sure that our churches should be full of people who don't know Christ. Put down the stones, I am going to try to explain myself here.

Some people will say that to have a seeker service, we need to have good music and a relevant message. Good music and a relevant message does not make something "seeker-friendly."  Music should be done well and the message should be applicable regardless of our style of service.

I think that the Church is here to disciple or teach people how to go deeper with Christ and then send them out into the world to lead other people to Jesus. I believe the Seeker Movement has made Christians lazy and indifferent about taking the Message of Jesus into the world and doing ministry. We rely on the Church to talk about Jesus. We rely on the Church to do the ministry. We need to quit expecting the Church to start a ministry before we can do the ministry. The Church should spend a lot of time training and empowering so that the people can do the work away from the church building. The Church cannot manage or fund every evangelistic program that people want to start. The Church needs to be the Church outside of the church.

Throughout the New Testament, we can see that disciples were sent out to make more disciples. Jesus in his Great Commission in Matthew 28 says that we are to make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching.

Acts 2:42(NIV)
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

These people were devoted to a process of making disciples and they did not sway from it. 

I am not trying to encourage an exclusive, members only social club that turns away anyone that doesn't think, act, or talk like me. I think it is alright to have people in church that don't have a relationship with Christ. I also think the Church should be doing something to help people who need help. I just think that we need to remember to train and equip the people we have to carry the Message OUTSIDE of the church walls.

Instead of being seeker-focused, we should try and be more intentional about being God-focused.