Alan Hirsch in The Forgotten Ways says, "The major challenge to the viability of Christianity is not Buddhism...nor is it Islam...nor the New Age... All of these are challenges, no doubt, but I have come to believe that the major threat to the viability of our faith is that of consumerism."
Yes, Paul, we are pastoring people who are consumers first and Christians second (or third, fourth...) Willow Creek says that their mission is to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Christ. I wonder if we should say that our mission is to turn American consumers into authentic sacrificial Christ followers? Is that possible when we seem to be "selling" Jesus as "the way to have all your needs met" and our church as the place where you can find it? Is it possible to attract consumers to church without appealing to their consumer instincts? And if we are appealing to their consumer instincts, how can we expect them to turn into missional, cross-bearing, loving-the-least-of-these kinds of people?
Can a church be both attractional and missional? I hope so and I'm looking for examples.
2 comments:
Thanks Bill!
I am looking forward to hearing Alan Hirsch at the Church Planting Summit in Phoenix the end of November. It is in a smaller venue and the opportunities to connect with top level speakers is awesome.
http://churchmultiplicationnetwork.com/leadershipsummit/speakers.cfm
Bill, I appreciate the honesty of your questions. Sometimes I question the entire structure of Christendom today.
I am glad the church is in deconstruct mode. We must stay there until the useless tripe is cleared away, and we can see Jesus again. There are many more sacred cows that need skewering and we should keep the grill hot.
I don't think we can be both attractional and missional. These two approaches are mutually exclusive in that they require a contradictory allocation of resources, creativity and other energies for the completion of the vision.
I agree with Hirsch and Frost (The Shaping of Things to Come)that the attractional church cannot make the transition into an incarnational form. Sometimes it makes me want to just start all over.
Rich Earl
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