One of the primary goals of a missional outreach (church, mission, seminar, whatever) is reaching the culture around it. The biggest flaw in most of these efforts is failing to contextualize the effort. This doesn’t mean becoming a gnarly, beer-swilling, foul-mouthed, party animal… it means strategically modifying your language, media, and style to match the culture and context into which you are reaching.
Once in a while a completely “no-brainer” way to help those who need it will come along. When it does, it’s our job to give. Here’s the dealie-o… you give $5 and two people who don’t have shoes to talk to work, school, play, whatever… get some soles for their souls.
So, for those of you who don’t know, I’ve been involved in building a Christian thingamajig called The Gathering aimed at the unchurched, 20 something, postmodern, blah, blah, blah… well.. “them” if you will. You know, that kid with the bone through his nose and leopard print tats serving your coffee? Anyway, as the leaders grapple with the hows, whats, and why’s of all of this, I recently got some feedback from a friend suggesting that maybe there ought to be more “story” involved in our teaching. At first I was like “well, duh!” and then gradually have come to realize that while, yes, I am in fact using elements of story in my teaching, but gee wizz… story REALLY is an effective tool to use when conveying a point.
I’ve been having a difficult time lately with our attitudes as followers of “The Way” which is a 1st century euphemism for Christianity.
According to a recently released report by the Barna Group, Evangelical Christians are finally getting on the Green band-wagon. The cool thing to note is that, as I’ve mentioned in the past, we’re doing it for the right reasons. Christians have a responsibility to be concerned for the environment because it’s GOD’S CREATION!
The way Christians handle issues regarding sexual orientation is always going to be a touchy (yikes)… how about difficult topic. Let’s face it folks, we live in a fallen world… full of sin and broken people. That said, I have to stand up and say how sick I am of the liberal, whacked out, flag burning… geez I need to calm down.
For those 2 of you out there that follow my blog regularly (okay, one is actually my wife but who’s counting), you know that I often reference posts from the Church Marketing Lab, aka churchmarketingsucks.com. Lately I haven’t read a ton there that made me say “huh…” but one of today’s posts piqued my interest.
A new guide from the Church of England offers church leaders a template for a year-long programme of practical action to reduce their congregations’ carbon footprints, as energy prices head upwards.
