Tim Keller on the Characteristics of a Missional Church
By JKam2000 - Posted on August 14th, 2009
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not an easy thing to do for a church that has been living as a church for this long.. truly a challenge.
what are some examples we can practically do to open up like that? any ideas?
i think this lack of respect for those who don't believe the way we do is why we are such an irrelevant institution for so many people. but to get out of this, like keller says, we have to stop worrying about just our tribe, and rather worry about the common good. in another video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6mschIjkBg), he talks about how the church should cease to be a sacred place of worship, and rather, a "community center with worship space." practically speaking, i think we need to open up the church more and more to the community around us, truly make it a community center, a place where those who don't believe the way we do feel comfortable coming, because they know they will be treated with respect. but not only that, i think we need to get out of the building more too...because those people won't feel comfortable coming in at first, since they've been treated so disrespectfully over the years. we have to go to them, show them the respect/love/dignity that we so naturally show to fellow believers, and i think by opening up to them, being honest with them about our shortcomings/doubts/fears, they'll open up to us, eventually forming a mutually respectful and loving relationship.
I think one simple way of doing that is when you're talking about a book of the bible, give a simple explanation... like when you're talking about the book of Phillipians, you can say "Paul was a missionary (a long time ago) to a city named Phillipi. After leaving them, he wrote them this book of encouragement" or some simple explanation that gets the person to have some context.
Another way is knowing how intimidating some things that we sometimes ask people to do in church and make it easier. When you have a time of prayer of two or three people next to you, you could give some simple ground rules like "If you're not used to praying, you can 'pass'" or something I heard a pastor say once is "For the people who are not used to praying in small groups, I'll tell you the secret. When you hear someone pray... just say 'mmm' or 'ah ha'" I thought it was funny, but he actually addressed those people who were uncomfortable with it and gave them some simple things to do.
Janjouna <><
i like ot