"Even though many today will be wearing black, they are truly white (or ripe) for a harvest. We must begin to look in places where traditionally the church would never go, for the spread of the Gospel."
i agree with dr. shane... we ARE already out there, but a lot of times we dont do any harvesting while we are.
unfortunately, we often take the position that the lost are supposed to come to US... even when we think we've gone to them. what comes to my mind right off, is when churches set up booths at fairs and festivals, then just sit there as the tide of humanity strolls on by.
what a silly notion if you look at it in the context of harvesting fields... that the crops would pull up their roots and come marching into the barn on their own!
I know that I am a little late on this comment, but what I was reminded of with the "wearing black" and "looking in places where tradiationally the church would never go" was my teenage experience. In the late 1980s and early 90s, there was a huge boom in "Christian Metal" music.
Metalhead that I was, I bought a lot of it, and attended several concerts. As I understand it, the main push was that there were huge numbers of teens and young adults who would attend a concert (knowing, of course, that it was "Christian" - this wasn't an attempt to deceive anyone) but who would never go to a "traditional" church.
I witnessed several lives amazingly and dramatically changed by this ministry, and I know for a fact that the those who were changed would have been nearly impossible to reach in any other way - they were purposefully so guarded about "religion."
Just because the "church" (meaning all believers) pass by these people at work, school, WalMart, hunting, etc. by no means entails that we are doing anything significant to reach many of these slaves to sub-cultural mindsets of exclusion and skepticism. In short, the quote, which calls us to "begin to look" in these places is a needed call.
Unfortunately, in the past decade, I've seen Christian music directed at teenagers deteriorate in both musical and "message" quality. There are still some Christians out there digging into the back alleys to bring the light to "the ends of the earth" - If you want to explore the very edges of this kind of ministry, I suggest a tour of the ministry of Demonhunter at www.demonhunter.net. Here you will truly discover a place "where traditionally the church would never go," but I know firsthand that Demonhunter has changed lives for Christ. Strolling kindly past unbelievers in WalMart, I'm sorry to say, just doesn't hack it as response to this great Organic Church plea.
"Even though many today will be wearing black, they are truly white (or ripe) for a harvest. We must begin to look in places where traditionally the church would never go, for the spread of the Gospel."
4 comments:
i agree with dr. shane... we ARE already out there, but a lot of times we dont do any harvesting while we are.
unfortunately, we often take the position that the lost are supposed to come to US... even when we think we've gone to them. what comes to my mind right off, is when churches set up booths at fairs and festivals, then just sit there as the tide of humanity strolls on by.
what a silly notion if you look at it in the context of harvesting fields... that the crops would pull up their roots and come marching into the barn on their own!
does hanging door hangers inviting people to church count? (lol)
I know that I am a little late on this comment, but what I was reminded of with the "wearing black" and "looking in places where tradiationally the church would never go" was my teenage experience. In the late 1980s and early 90s, there was a huge boom in "Christian Metal" music.
Metalhead that I was, I bought a lot of it, and attended several concerts. As I understand it, the main push was that there were huge numbers of teens and young adults who would attend a concert (knowing, of course, that it was "Christian" - this wasn't an attempt to deceive anyone) but who would never go to a "traditional" church.
I witnessed several lives amazingly and dramatically changed by this ministry, and I know for a fact that the those who were changed would have been nearly impossible to reach in any other way - they were purposefully so guarded about "religion."
Just because the "church" (meaning all believers) pass by these people at work, school, WalMart, hunting, etc. by no means entails that we are doing anything significant to reach many of these slaves to sub-cultural mindsets of exclusion and skepticism. In short, the quote, which calls us to "begin to look" in these places is a needed call.
Unfortunately, in the past decade, I've seen Christian music directed at teenagers deteriorate in both musical and "message" quality. There are still some Christians out there digging into the back alleys to bring the light to "the ends of the earth" - If you want to explore the very edges of this kind of ministry, I suggest a tour of the ministry of Demonhunter at www.demonhunter.net. Here you will truly discover a place "where traditionally the church would never go," but I know firsthand that Demonhunter has changed lives for Christ. Strolling kindly past unbelievers in WalMart, I'm sorry to say, just doesn't hack it as response to this great Organic Church plea.
hey, I got it! let's all have a southern gospel concert!
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