According to research conducted by Lifeway and North American Mission Board, people seem to like Jesus, but not His church...

• Seventy-two percent of the people interviewed said they think the church is full of hypocrites.
• Seventy-one percent of the respondents said they believe Jesus makes a positive difference in a person’s life.
• Seventy-eight percent said they would ‘be willing to listen’ to someone who wanted to share what they believed about "Christianity".

Our challenge is being the relational Church to people without looking like the "church" that turns them off.

Read Lifeway Study

The Church is a Who to Love, not a Thing to go to

People stop "going to church"...and another tear is shed? Whathuh???

Okay people, let's back this thing up for a minute. Start from the beginning and make it all crystal clear for me. Here is what you are saying:

-Jesus came and redeemed and for a couple hundred years his followers turned the world upside down and inside out. His last instructions where to "go to church" until He comes back.

-When people don't "go to church" they are being bad.

-If they do "go to church" then His Truth is Marching On.

Alright, now that you said it plainly to me in your words (above) I now know that it is not just my imagination. You should expect a lifetime of tears, mourning the loss of some Thing that was a faulty idea to begin with.

Tears aside, here is where it might get real ugly for you: The above assumptions about this Thing called "going to church" have enmity with Jesus Christ.

If you are weeping over the destruction of your idea of church then please be prepared for a lifetime of weeping. It was a bogus idea and bogus ideas deserve to die.

If you are interested in embracing Church as a Who and not a Thing then welcome back to Jesus! I gotta warn you my friend. This Jesus (not the invented one) is radical and wild. IF you were to listen to his Truth on this matter then you might have to throw away your old measuring sticks.

Does He measure attendance or hearts turned inside out? Care to see it His way?

Does He measure idle observers or does He reproduce disciples? Why did you decide to change His plans?

More and more people are less and less interested in "going to church". This is Good News!
The Kingdom is Here! He Lives Among Us!

R

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