Getting Things Right (Part 2)

Getting Things Right (Part 2)

There are reasons the Barna Study Group say keep people out of church, and personally I think that might be because real people do the same things in real life. I mean, just have a few conversations with unchurched people and you'll see what I mean. For many church doesn't matter anymore because they've seen or heard the negative more than the positive.

These conversations with a non-attender usually go something like this: 

(1) The church is irrelevant and behind the times so why would anyone go?

(2) The church is full of hypocrisy. Just look at the moral failure of so many of its leaders.

I really can’t blame people for this perception. I shiver every time I see another headline announcing a new moral failure of a pastor, leader, or evangelist. Also, we have burned our bridges by our judgmental attitudes and lived as self-righteous bigots to some extent?

So what’s the solution to these dilemmas?

-Just because many churches are like the afore mentioned that doesn’t mean the one you pastor has to be. 

a. It’s possible to create a counterculture of integrity and grace.  

It’s actually a bit strange to call things like integrity and grace countercultural, even within the context of church culture, but they are. In 2019 we need to walk the talk and be better at representing Jesus. Yes sin is still sin, and will always be. Be instead of judgement we are to show mercy and grace. We are to do everything within our power to restore those that have fallen and compel the halt, lame, and withered to come in

Jesus said that it would be by our fruit that people would recognize us.  Live a life of integrity with each other and outsiders, and your church will become a magnet, not a repellant.