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Why do non-Christians go to church? (postponed)
Published by Jeff, on May 20th, 2010 in Front Page, Tough Questions.Okay, it’s finally time for me to begin tackling this question. The problem is that I don’t really know the answers so this is going to be a general musing with some of my own hunches. Therefore, I’m really interested to know your opinions on it too. Perhaps together, we can figure some of this out.
That is how I started writing this post, but that was two weeks ago, and I still don’t have any really good answer for this question, so I’m posting this now just to let you know I’m still working on it.
I’m going to be reading a book called Surprising Insights from the Unchurched to figure out the major factors leading people outside the world of church to explore the church world in the first place.
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In our day today, many Christians oppose the increasing tolerance toward extra-marital sex. Of course, some are militant, but others are honestly opposed to the proliferation of loose sexual morality while remaining non-judgmental.
On the other hand, many Christians are being ostracized by the media and others for their “conservative” and “irrational” or “archaic” views on sexuality. The continuing crisis of pedophilia among ministers doesn’t help us on this front.
However, the thought came to me today that in ancient Greek society, pedophilia (in the form of pederasty) was a natural and common part of early education. Boys who grew up without having an adult male sexual partner were outcasts. The ancient Christians opposed this practice heavily. Who was right?
Of course the lesson I take away from this is twofold:
- Societal sexual morals have always been loose and opposing that looseness in the past has proven to be the right course of action.
- Christians, especially leaders, must live well by a higher standard if we ever expect anyone else to follow suit.
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Yesterday, at the National Day of Prayer noon service, I had the chance to lead with some people from our church, a new musician friend in Adam Jansen and some local pastor friends.
At the end of the service, I said to the crowd: If you don’t have a church home, I want to shamelessly ask you to come to ours. With so many churches represented there, I gave a brief pause for shock value, and then pointed to the other pastors who were joining us and said, “Because, Tom, Justin, and Adam here each lead great congregations of our church.”
It felt a little awkward, but also refreshing to speak of the different congregations in Lafayette as “our church.” Perhaps that kind of talk will catch on at least with me.
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Why do Christians go to church?
Published by Jeff, on April 28th, 2010 in Front Page, Tough Questions.This last Fall, we took a survey in our church asking people to rank our church from “ick” to “wow” on various categories. This is a non-scientific study, of course, but the vast majority of our church attendees gave our church a “wow” on our preaching and mid to high marks on everything else. Also, my own anecdotal research shows that the vast majority of people in our church found our church because they were intentionally looking for a church.
As a result, I have a few ideas on why Christians go to church when they go. Please weigh in with your perspective as well. » Click here to read the rest. «
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Why Christians Should Go to Church
Published by Jeff, on April 28th, 2010 in Front Page, Tough Questions.
Yesterday, I started a series of posts on why people go to church. Studies show us that large portions of the population claim to have a strong relationship with Jesus yet studies also show that large portions of the population rarely or never go to church.
Today, I continue that discussion.
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:25
Why Christians SHOULD Go to Church
The writer of Hebrews gives us two reasons people should go to church and two obstacles that must be overcome. » Click here to read the rest. «
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This morning, my wife heard on the Christian radio station that a recent study reports 67% of Americans claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus that affects their daily lives.
However, just last weekend, I heard a statistic that currently 17% of Americans go to church. I think that means specifically that on any given week, only 17% of Americans attend a religious service. The number of people who attend at least one service a month is surely much higher than that, but still, the number is astounding to me.
If two-thirds of the population feels they have a life-altering relationship with Jesus, why is church attendance so low and apparently going down? » Click here to read the rest. «
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All this sound with only three guys
Published by Jeff, on February 24th, 2010 in Front Page, Leadership, Stuff I Find, Video.With Everything (Elevation Remix) – by Hillsong United from Elevation Worship on Vimeo.
The quality of music coming out of Elevation Church is truly remarkable especially when you consider many of the risks they take regarding instrumentation. Check out their Vimeo page to see more.
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