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Beyond the Church

I have been involved in a church all of my life. Some of the best experiences in my life have been in church. Yep, you guessed it, some of the worst have too. To be honest, most of my experiences in church have been neither great nor awful, they have simply been a part of the fabric of my life, a part of the way of life that is normal to my family, part of my identity. Because faithful people in church had clearly taught me the gospel and had transmitted the mandate to spread the gospel, I came to see the powerful truth that the peoples of the earth needed to be transformed by the gospel. The gospel became my way of life, and sharing it became my passion. In 1985, the centrality of the gospel carried me out to India where I unexpectedly discovered something very unsettling about people and churches and the gospel. I had to allow for the possibility that if the gospel did not spread beyond the churches, it would never spread to the entire world. In the last 26 years of trying to be a faithful witness, I have learned that there are millions and millions of people in the world who will not listen to the gospel if it is not disconnected from a church.

The reason for this is easy to understand but much harder to accept. These type of people do not want to be a part of the World Christian Movement, therefore, they do not respond to the gospel if it comes to them in terms of missions or any type of church centered Christian ministry. Huh? What in the world does that mean? What this means is that some of us need to disconnect from the World Christian Movement, at least for a while, connect more strongly to Jesus with a smaller group of his disciples and try to enter this non-Christian world. We carry no preconceived ideas about church with us, but we cling to the Lordship of Christ and we adhere to the clear teachings of scripture so that we can be faithful witnesses on the gospel frontier and reproduce discipleship to Jesus in families and communities; the essence of a church.

Ultimately, it means that people, typical everyday people, who have no official Christian title but who are devoted disciples of Jesus Christ and gifted by the Spirit of God are needed to do this. God has uniquely enabled many of these believers to initiate relationships and activities that bring a sustained exposure of the gospel to people who are completely non-Christian in their approach to life and who, therefore, function totally outside of the influence of a church. Many os us know how to do this, so... what are you waiting for?

Comments

  1. brianMarch 31, 2012 at 6:11 PM

    I am not sure how to get here. I feel judged by the church and even my own family...I feel guilt from what I have always been taught but at the same time I feel it is the right thing...Lord give wisdom and courage.

    ReplyDelete

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