Ministry News
‘Much of Christianity Does Not Work’
- Details
- Tuesday, 10 February 2009 13:09
QUOTE: “Relevancy means speaking to the true battles people are facing in terms of depression, exhaustion, joblessness, inability to connect with God, etc. I do not see most pastors at all in touch with how the majority of their listeners have no idea how to hear from God. This should be a top priority. Relevancy is understanding what your typical parishioner goes through; everything from killer rush hours to family breakdowns. … Part of the problem is that pastors do not want to admit that much of Christianity does not work. So many of the promises in Scripture simply don’t come true, and people cannot wrap their minds around that contradiction. Now, there are ways around this, but it’s the rare pastor who gets it that people are struggling with what their lives are like and what the Bible stays—and the wide gulf in between. Speaking to those hard spots would be so helpful. … After a while people think they must be awful Christians because the system is not working for them, so they drop out out of sheer discouragement. That does not need to happen, yet this goes on all the time. Folks hate being part of something in which all they do is fail.” —Quitting Church author Julia Duin, who was part of the Jesus movement and charismatic renewal movement, on why most American churches have failed in their attempts to be “relevant” and, consequently, why so many Americans have stopped going to church [beliefnet.com, 2/3/09]
Subscribe to our Magazine
Ministry Clip of the Week
Download Video: HTML5 Video Player by VideoJS
 |
|
SITES: Charisma | Vida Cristiana | Spiritled Woman | Ministry Today | Christian Retailing
Click here to enter our new customer service community
Comments
It helps for the Pastoral staff and leadership to cry out to God and ask why it isn't working and how to change while staying in line the the bible. God usually won't move overnight, but He will move.
These prayers are good ones to pray over government leaders, leaders in your workplace or school, and for Pastors to pray over themselves daily.
In churches where leadership decides to go in this direction handout both the scriptures and the scriptures converted to prayers as an individual would actually pray them, in the bible translation in use in their churches. Then lead the congregations in praying them. Model these prayers occasionally in in small group meetings, be they bible studies, prayer meetings, fellowship meetings or whenever members of your congregation gather. This way everyone will know how to pray them. Youe might start out with just one or two prayers and then add to them as the congregation adjusts, especially in larger congregations.
RSS feed for comments to this post