I haven't always been an "outside the box" thinker. For most of my life I have gone with the flow, didn't ask many questions, accepted things for what they were, and never thought much of it. This is especially the case with regards to traditional church. However, the more I've learned, the more I've questioned, and the more I've sought biblical truth, the more confident I am that we as a Church need to get outside our box. Whether our box is a building, a program, Sunday morning, or a service... our faith needs to reach outside the boxes we've put them in.
We've built programs that have, although unintentionally, replaced individual responsibility. We keep people accountable to church attendance rather than to authentic worship through everyday obedience. We focus on numbers instead of on individual discipleship. We believe in curriculum more than the Holy Spirit's illumination.
Why do we think inviting people to church is the biblical approach to seeing people come to Christ? How could our corporate worship of God make sense to someone who doesn't have a relationship with God? Wasn't the Gospel meant to be preached outside of our walls, while fellowship and discipleship taught inside. We seemed to have reversed the model of the 1st century church.
Christ's command was this, "As you are going, make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you...." Christ didn't say, "Go and build churches. When you build them, they will come. Then create programs to teach them, and make them good people." Individual obedience and responsibility is implied. He gives us the who, what, where, and when. The "why" is because we love Him and want to obey Him. The "how" he seems to leave open ended and in the hands of the Holy Spirit's guidance. But maybe that's too out of the box for us.
If we were serious about reaching an unbelieving people... wouldn't the best time to find them be during the Sunday church hour? Try cancelling the church worship service one Sunday to have everyone go out and tell people about Christ during that time. Better yet, have the church families invite their unbelieving friends/coworkers to their own house to serve them breakfast and to tell them about Christ. See how people respond.
Get out of the box.
It'll bring you joy, I mean, just look how happy Tigger is!
-Steve
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