Come to us...or go to them?

Simply a great short presentation of why being on mission day to day with purpose versus aiming at attracting occasionally is more biblical in my opinion. I dont think this means there is never anything that is "attractional" in the ministry of the church body but it has to do with an underlying value and way of thinking outreach.

When people come to our church and ask us if we do evangelism or have an evangelism program...I point to the people first and say..."we are purposing to raise up evangelists not an evangelistic program...missionaries not a missions program" It really isn't just semantics. Of course there are challenging points to this way of thinking.

-You end up having to trust the people not the program. Programs are far more containable, controllable and consistent. We can micromanage programs but people are in constant flux.

-Trusting God to be God in His church, means you are not God anymore. That really strikes at the root of our desire to look good, together or like we have everything figured out. People want charts, maps, travel books about everything...if you give them a compass and say we are simply heading East...they scratch their head. They are not used to being told "any-road is good, just go in that direction". They want to be told what road, where to turn, what city, when do I turn left, etc. The church has created dependent believers that are always waiting for fear of doing something "out of God's will"...its religious bondage.

-It means having faith in God's word in a way that runs counter to the way the world or business runs. We are taught by world and by deed and example that the great, the best, the good looking, the talented, the strong, the smart and the rich make things of value happen. This is a dis-empowering model that basically cuts out most of us. So we end up with a lot of programs run by a few people that end up getting puffed up and then burned out. God's way is more about what do you have in your house vs. wait until the qualified or the abundance or the gifted come to your house.

-Then of course...people are always more sinful, slower, hardhearted and hardheaded, more picky, fussy, lazy, undisciplined, prayerless, quirky, bitchy, anal and tight fisted than a program. It's tough work walking with people, discipling people, watching them rise and fall, love and betray you. Running church life from behind a desk and a pulpit vs from behind people is a big differance. One says "come and see" and another says...."go and meet".

One is about me and the other is about them.