Reinventing church requires looking at all that we are and all that we do and asking ourselves, “Is this biblical? Is this the best way of accomplishing what the church is supposed to be and do? Is there a better way?” One key area that such questions need to be asked is in the area of Outreach and Evangelism. (You’ll see by the way I’ve worded some of the questions below that I feel very strongly about this issue.)
What if Outreach, Evangelism and Missions were different?
What if the pastor was not seen as the one who does the evangelism through his sermon?
What if evangelism wasn’t often defined simply as “inviting someone to church for a special event or to hear a special speaker”?
What if the people in church viewed themselves first and foremost as missionaries? How could pastors help them develop this paradigm shift?
What if we viewed supporting missionaries as more important than building a new building or upgrading our existing one?
What is “mission” anyway? Who are “the missionaries”?
What if all our people knew how to share the message of eternal life?
What if there was more to evangelism than simply sharing the message of eternal life (or the four spiritual laws, the Romans Road, or whatever)?
What if we don’t have “evangelism events” but instead trained people to simply love others?
What if we didn’t have “revivals” but instead focused on 1-to-1 discipleship?
What if we stopped praying for revivals and the “evangelization of the lost” and actually went across the street and served somebody?
What if we stopped trying to plan and program our own “serve the community” events, and just joined in the events which the community was already doing? (For ideas, go look at the bulletin board in the Town Hall or the Supermarket. Call the Courthouse, the Fire Department, or the Police. Contact your mayor for a list of events.)
What if evangelism took place in people’s homes as we invite them over to our houses, and us to theirs?
What if we showed as much grace toward believers and unbelievers as God shows toward us?
What if evangelism was just as much about right living as it is about right believing?
Would more people want to become followers of Jesus if we lived life with more joy, laughter, love, patience, kindness, and gentleness?
What if we didn’t care about people using profanity in our presence, or if they smelled of alcohol and cigarettes?
What if, rather than trying to impress our views upon other people, we tried to learn about their views instead, and asked them what they believed?
What if, rather than trying to get people to act like us, talk like us, look like us as soon as they “get saved” we let the Holy Spirit work in them at their (and His) own pace?
What if we stopped saying “Praise God” and “God Bless You” at the end of every sentence?
What if we stopped telling people “I’ll pray for you” and tried to help them instead?
What if, instead of practicing “apologetic evangelism” where we are always trying to defend the faith against the heresies of the heathen, we loved people and served people?
What if we let people get involved in church who weren’t sure yet what they believed about Jesus or God?
What if evangelism and discipleship were the same thing?
What if we didn’t focus so much on evangelism, but on discipleship?
What if the gospel was more than just a set of doctrines, but an all-encompassing claim on life?
What if nearly everything in life could be redeemed for discipleship?
What if we stopped using Christian music, Christian movies, Christian literature and started watching and reading the same things that our neighbors and coworkers are?
What if, instead of starting Christian Coffee Houses, Christian Work-Out Centers, and Christian Bridge Clubs, we started just going to these places that were already in our community and meeting the people who go there?
What if we stopped “having church” in our Christian buildings, and instead went down to the local beach, or the local restaurant, or the local bar?
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Feel free to provide your own questions in the comment section below.
because if you reinvented church, you would have a split between approval and disapproval of the changes, with the disapproval shifting away from the church. this would cause a drop in revenue, which would cause doubt in the staff about their choices. call it a snowball effect.
change begins with discussion, continues with confrontation, resolves with solutions, and ends with implementation of new ideas into practical applications.
before you even say the ‘c’ in the confrontation stage, you will find people that will cringe and run away. therefore, reinventing church, aside from financially independent churches (those that do not rely on tithes to operate), will turn into repackaging church into a shiny box without any true change. It will take a new generation ‘role model’ church, a “Rick Warren” style mega-movement to bring in something different; yet, not so different as to shake people out of their boots, but a slow crockpot style change…for if we were to desire the radical concept of full surrender to Christ as mentioned in His Bible, we will always have a full attack of Satan dropping the ‘cult’ word more often than a golf ball at Torrey Pines to counter our efforts.
What if the pastor was not seen as the one who does the evangelism through his sermon?
Thats great, he is there to equip the saints for serving the Lord and evangelism (Eph. 4). Most of the time he should be edifying believers with the Word but also share the gospel as well.
What if evangelism wasn’t often defined simply as “inviting someone to church for a special event or to hear a special speaker”?
Great, evangelism is preaching the gospel, not coming to church, this can be done outside of church
What if the people in church viewed themselves first and foremost as missionaries? How could pastors help them develop this paradigm shift?
Great, how to do this? Teach the priesthood of the believer
What if we viewed supporting missionaries as more important than building a new building or upgrading our existing one?
Great, as a missionary myself to Africa, I know churches that wanted to support my ministry but couldnt due to the building project, maybe instead of building their church bigger they should rather (in some cases) start another church in the neighbouring town next to theirs or help a missionary to do so in another country
What is “mission” anyway? Who are “the missionaries”?
The mission is for us to fulfill the great commission from Matthew 28 for the glory of God. Every believer is a missionary.
What if all our people knew how to share the message of eternal life?
Wonderful, but based on surveys done with over 18,000 people in Evangelical/Fundamental churches only a little more than half the people in these churches knows and understands teh gospel.
What if there was more to evangelism than simply sharing the message of eternal life (or the four spiritual laws, the Romans Road, or whatever)?
Evangelism is sharing the gospel, nothing more. But we can and should do pre evangelism through sharing loving relationships with non believers
What if we don’t have “evangelism events” but instead trained people to simply love others?
In American culture, that could be very effective.
What if we didn’t have “revivals” but instead focused on 1-to-1 discipleship?
Why not do both
What if we stopped praying for revivals and the “evangelization of the lost” and actually went across the street and served somebody?
Stop Praying, absolutely not, bad idea
What if we stopped trying to plan and program our own “serve the community” events, and just joined in the events which the community was already doing? (For ideas, go look at the bulletin board in the Town Hall or the Supermarket. Call the Courthouse, the Fire Department, or the Police. Contact your mayor for a list of events.)
Good, but we can do both or as the Lord leads in each situation
What if evangelism took place in people’s homes as we invite them over to our houses, and us to theirs?
Great
What if we showed as much grace toward believers and unbelievers as God shows toward us?
Wonderful
What if evangelism was just as much about right living as it is about right believing?
Living a good life is NOT evangelism, I saw a sign that said “share the gospel, use words if necessary”, ‘if’ I thought, you can not share gospel which is Christ death and resurrection, without words unless you are a very talented mime artist.
Although we do need to be careful to not turn people off to the message by a life that lacks love.
Would more people want to become followers of Jesus if we lived life with more joy, laughter, love, patience, kindness, and gentleness?
Probably
What if we didn’t care about people using profanity in our presence, or if they smelled of alcohol and cigarettes?
We should accept them and not fuss about this to unbelievers
What if, rather than trying to impress our views upon other people, we tried to learn about their views instead, and asked them what they believed?
Great in a postmodern culture
What if, rather than trying to get people to act like us, talk like us, look like us as soon as they “get saved” we let the Holy Spirit work in them at their (and His) own pace?
So true, Im guilty here
What if we stopped saying “Praise God” and “God Bless You” at the end of every sentence?
Why not say this. If that offends people so be it. We should be glad to praise the Lord
What if we stopped telling people “I’ll pray for you” and tried to help them instead?
Why not do both
What if, instead of practicing “apologetic evangelism” where we are always trying to defend the faith against the heresies of the heathen, we loved people and served people?
Both are important
What if we let people get involved in church who weren’t sure yet what they believed about Jesus or God?
Involved yes, but be careful not to let them become too influential or be able to vote etc. I have seen this happen. Unbelievers should not be the leaders of the chuch
What if evangelism and discipleship were the same thing?
Then we would all go to hell. We can not earn our way to heaven by following and obeying the laws of Jesus, that is discipleship and is not the way to heaven
What if we didn’t focus so much on evangelism, but on discipleship?
Do both
What if the gospel was more than just a set of doctrines, but an all-encompassing claim on life?
Then the Bible would not be true, the gospel is a set of doctrines founded on the histrorical reality of what Jesus did so we can go to heaven, when we believe these doctrines, we are saved. Once we are saved, we are new creatures and so then the effect of believing the gospel is an all encompassing claim on life
What if nearly everything in life could be redeemed for discipleship?
good
What if we stopped using Christian music, Christian movies, Christian literature and started watching and reading the same things that our neighbors and coworkers are?
Not good, why neglect things which are edifying to the christian life, that would be an unhealthy focus on evangelism in the place of discipleship, just do both I say
What if, instead of starting Christian Coffee Houses, Christian Work-Out Centers, and Christian Bridge Clubs, we started just going to these places that were already in our community and meeting the people who go there?
Sounds great
What if we stopped “having church” in our Christian buildings, and instead went down to the local beach, or the local restaurant, or the local bar?
Wow, I didn’t expect someone to answer all the questions!
Thanks for the input!