Rev. Bob Yount\u2019s sermon this past Sunday is the basis for my reflections in this blog post. He emphasized that the church was never supposed to be a place that people are brought to in order to hear the\u00a0gospel. It is supposed to be a place where Christians are taught and prepared to bring good news, compassion, and help out into the world.<\/p>\n
As I listened, I was struck by how the misunderstanding he described has probably led rather directly to the present state of affairs in the church. And ironically, it is the heyday of Christianity in the United States that may have been a\u00a0chief influential factor.<\/p>\n
When everyone went to church, the people that needed to be evangelized were in the church\u2019s midst\u00a0-those who attended for cultural reasons\u00a0rather than devotion. And so one preached at the unbelieving and complacent in one\u2019s midst. As it increasingly became the norm for those who didn\u2019t believe to simply not come, the focus of Christians (who by this stage had largely forgotten how to share their faith in a meaningful and effective way) was increasingly placed on inviting those people to church, where a professional could proclaim the message to them.<\/p>\n
By focusing on\u00a0evangelism Sunday after Sunday, perhaps ironically, fewer and fewer Christians had any sense of what they believe or why they believe it, which might have enabled them to interact respectfully and confidently with others who questioned or challenged them.\u00a0And fewer and fewer Christians were being taught to live and act in Christlike ways that would speak louder than the words they found themselves ill-equipped to articulate outside of the church\u2019s walls.<\/p>\n
When people are challenged about their beliefs, and haven\u2019t been taught about their basis \u2013 or when people think that their \u201cfaith\u201d actually means subscribing to those doctrines and dogmas \u2013 then when they find themselves confronted with other viewpoints, rather than loving their enemies, they are prone to become defensive and dogmatic.<\/p>\n
The church\u2019s failure in its mission of discipleship may thus be\u00a0the reason we have such widespread fundamentalism, misguided apologetics, and much else.<\/p>\n
And so the question is whether we can get back to what we\u2019re supposed to be doing, and in the process transform the church from something that has lost credibility to something that, whether one is part of it or not,\u00a0is having a positive impact that can be recognized by Christians and non-Christians alike.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rev. Bob Yount\u2019s sermon this past Sunday is the basis for my reflections in this blog post. He emphasized that the church was never supposed to be a place that people are brought to in order to hear the\u00a0gospel. It is supposed to be a place where Christians are taught and prepared to bring good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":38550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[1880,3204,7531,9430,11111],"class_list":["post-38543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity-religion","tag-church","tag-evangelism","tag-mission","tag-preaching","tag-sermon"],"yoast_head":"\n