how the church gets it backwards
Jesus was always on the move.
Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lie down and rest.
Jesus was always on the move, going to the people, seeking out the people.
The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
Jesus was always on the move, seeking out the people, and inviting them to follow.
Come with me, and I will teach you to catch people.
Any fisherman knows — you don’t even have to be a good fisherman — you don’t catch fish by waiting for them to jump in the boat! You catch fish by seeking them out, by knowing their haunts and their habits, by learning to think … like a fish!
It seems to me that much of the time the church gets it backwards. Much of the time, I get it backwards. We aren’t moving, seeking, catching. We are holed up in our sanctuaries wondering why the masses aren’t streaming in the doors asking to be saved. We build it and wonder why they don’t come.
Jesus tells us to follow, to go where he goes, to do what he does.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.
Which means in the same way, in the same fashion. Instead of developing evangelism strategies designed to get people in the doors and grow the membership of our churches, we need to develop evangelism strategies designed — to evangelize! — to get the Good News to the people who most need to hear it. There are churches that do it well, but most of us need to stop doing it backwards, turn ourselves around, go out the doors, and follow Jesus.
I do not watch television because the world on the screen is not the world I want to live in. It is not the real world, but if I spend enough time watching it I know I will forget that.