is a blog about Jeff and Wendy Kauffman and an outreach to the poor they started on the streets of South Florida with the goal of eventually starting a church for the unchurched, dechurched and unbelievers in Miami. A church for people that don't like church, reaching the ones furthest from Christ and introducing them to a loving God
I tried to re-post all of Vinces blog, because it's pretty good, but, that's all I could get on there. But, if you are unable to follow the link, here is what it says:
"When you do church for people who don't like church, joining Jesus on His mission of helping people who are far from God get close to Him, there are all kinds of tensions you live in and have to embrace.
One of those tensions is between Christians and non-Christians, and that sucks. Now I don't mean that there are tensions between the Christians and the non-Christians in the church. I mean that what each of those groups need is not always the same. And what each of those groups wants is rarely the same. Christians may want verse-by-verse teaching, non-Christians want you to give them answers for what they're struggling with. Christians might desire long times of heart-felt worship, non-Christians could think that gets a little weird. Often Christians want you to serve them, while non-Christians want to serve the community.
So what do you do? The easiest decision is to "side with" the Christians, or with the non-Christians. (99.99% of churches will give Christians what they want.) The right decision is to live in the tension. It's complicated, but you pray hard and talk a lot trying to figure out how to side with God, and to do what it takes to teach Christians AND reach non-Christians.
But, when you just absolutely can't figure it out and you have to choose one: Go with the non-Christians. Why? Because 99.9% of churches are doing the opposite, and someone has to do it. And, more importantly, because if Christians don't like what you're doing, they'll leave and go to a different church. But if non-Christians don't like what you're doing, they'll leave and possibly never go to church again.
what's the rest of that sentence???!?
ReplyDeleteI tried to re-post all of Vinces blog, because it's pretty good, but, that's all I could get on there. But, if you are unable to follow the link, here is what it says:
ReplyDelete"When you do church for people who don't like church, joining Jesus on His mission of helping people who are far from God get close to Him, there are all kinds of tensions you live in and have to embrace.
One of those tensions is between Christians and non-Christians, and that sucks. Now I don't mean that there are tensions between the Christians and the non-Christians in the church. I mean that what each of those groups need is not always the same. And what each of those groups wants is rarely the same. Christians may want verse-by-verse teaching, non-Christians want you to give them answers for what they're struggling with. Christians might desire long times of heart-felt worship, non-Christians could think that gets a little weird. Often Christians want you to serve them, while non-Christians want to serve the community.
So what do you do? The easiest decision is to "side with" the Christians, or with the non-Christians. (99.99% of churches will give Christians what they want.) The right decision is to live in the tension. It's complicated, but you pray hard and talk a lot trying to figure out how to side with God, and to do what it takes to teach Christians AND reach non-Christians.
But, when you just absolutely can't figure it out and you have to choose one: Go with the non-Christians. Why? Because 99.9% of churches are doing the opposite, and someone has to do it. And, more importantly, because if Christians don't like what you're doing, they'll leave and go to a different church. But if non-Christians don't like what you're doing, they'll leave and possibly never go to church again.
wow!
ReplyDelete