Have you ever loved someone with an agenda? I have preached and heard that we shouldn't love people with an agenda. After contemplating that more I have come to notice that it is said more as a crutch for not sharing the gospel.
Sometimes it takes us having an agenda to get involved in a persons life.
When my wife and I first met...I had an agenda. I wanted her to like me. I wanted her to be charmed only by me. I wanted nothing else than to have her as mine. So I planned, purposed, and proposed. My plan was simple. Communicate with her as much as possible. We had a long distance relationship so I was going to write, IM, email, talk on the phone, do whatever I had to in order to stay at the front of her mind. My purpose was to win her heart. I did that by driving approx 2,000 miles to see her. Every moment I was with her I drank it in so I could pour out my own affection toward her. After several trips (not all by car) she moved to the city I lived in. About two months later I proposed. It all started with an agenda.
If I didn't have an agenda I could have lost out on the very best person I have ever had in my life.
I don't need to approach a person as another spiritual conquest. However, I need to have an agenda to open a pathway for people who don't have a relationship with God to encounter Him. If I don't because I don't want to love a person with an agenda I could very well miss out on daily opportunities to tell people I should connect with about Jesus.
People we come into contact with deserve to hear about Jesus. We cannot fail in this rudimentary portion of our faith.
Jesus didn't say "Love people if you like them" or "Just tell the people you like about Me." One thing He did say that should cut us to the heart is: "Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord' and do not do what I say?"
You don't love a person well if they don't have a relationship with God and you remain silent.
Love with an agenda because some people don't love at all.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Mission HQ or Mission Field
Generally speaking the most dominate movement within the modern day American church is to be MISSIONAL. This movement, when done with compassion, consistency, and tenacity will reshape the structure of the church.
The predominant "missional" practice is to compel people to come to a church function (youth group, men's/women's ministries, outreach located at or near the church, etc) A great deal of time, energy, and money is spent on outreaches that draw people to the Church. This is not bad but it makes the "Sinner" take the first step...and that not toward God but toward the Church. We can believe that what we are doing is missional but it is far from it.
I love the practice of those that attend Mars Hill in Seattle, WA. Their pastor, Mark Driscoll, says that you can look at his church's budget and you won't see a lot of money being spent on outreaches. And the reason that is because within his church the people know that outreach is a thing that they are supposed to do every day. So instead of 1 outreach committee and 1 outreach event a month or whatever; you have 100's of "outreaches" going every single day. That is the reality of Christians actually being missional.
Just think of the tremendous impact a truly missional church would make for Christ. Picture your church. How many people attend? How many of the people either do nothing or do everything? How often do you have a strategic evangelistic emphasis? Who gets involved? Is it the same people? Just imagine the impact your church could have if the DNA of the church was that each person intentionally reached out to someone everyday.
Let's say your church has 50 people and everyone of them reaches out everyday to one person. Now lets say that only 10% of those that they reached out to everyday accepted Christ and started attending your church with that type of DNA: Sunday 50, Monday 55, Tuesday 61, Wednesday 67, Thursday 74, Friday 81, Saturday 89, Sunday 98 so in a sense by the time the next week rolls around you would have nearly doubled the attendance of your church.
In order for that to take place we need to infuse a new DNA within the church. It can be catastrophic or revolutionary. But it takes visionaries to start making those steps to create the change in their context to reach their communities for Jesus.
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| Sinner has to assimilate to the Church before they actually have an encounter with God. |
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| Church goes to where the Sinner is at and opens the door for the Sinner to have an encounter with God in their context. |
I love the practice of those that attend Mars Hill in Seattle, WA. Their pastor, Mark Driscoll, says that you can look at his church's budget and you won't see a lot of money being spent on outreaches. And the reason that is because within his church the people know that outreach is a thing that they are supposed to do every day. So instead of 1 outreach committee and 1 outreach event a month or whatever; you have 100's of "outreaches" going every single day. That is the reality of Christians actually being missional.
Just think of the tremendous impact a truly missional church would make for Christ. Picture your church. How many people attend? How many of the people either do nothing or do everything? How often do you have a strategic evangelistic emphasis? Who gets involved? Is it the same people? Just imagine the impact your church could have if the DNA of the church was that each person intentionally reached out to someone everyday.
Let's say your church has 50 people and everyone of them reaches out everyday to one person. Now lets say that only 10% of those that they reached out to everyday accepted Christ and started attending your church with that type of DNA: Sunday 50, Monday 55, Tuesday 61, Wednesday 67, Thursday 74, Friday 81, Saturday 89, Sunday 98 so in a sense by the time the next week rolls around you would have nearly doubled the attendance of your church.
In order for that to take place we need to infuse a new DNA within the church. It can be catastrophic or revolutionary. But it takes visionaries to start making those steps to create the change in their context to reach their communities for Jesus.
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