Thoughts Continued
A couple of days ago I wrote about some observations from my overview of Acts. There is one more thought that I want to share. I also shared that I had a conversation about a friend’s project to develop an AI app that would engage people with the Bible. The target of my friend’s app will be millennials.
Current Church Trends
During the course of the conversation we talked a bit about how churches are altering their services and messages to attract millennials. The idea is that generation is different and so the Bible has to be made relevant to them.
Counter Cultural
The Bible is counter to all generations, all cultures, all people. It is God’s thoughts, His Word, as unregenerate people we are enemies of God, Romans 5:10. It is normal human nature to be repelled by our enemy. There is not much of what they have to say in which I have any interest.
So the notion of attracting those who are not redeemed to come hear something that is counter to their world view strikes me as a futile exercise at best. At this point Acts kicks in.
What Can We Learn from Acts?
Starting in Acts 2:42 we read what was going on in the early Church. They were studying the Word, encouraging one another, and eating together. All of these people were converts. Read the rest of the book, I do not find in any passage, nor in any of the epistles for that matter a place where the apostles were meeting to strategize how to attract non-believers to their meeting.
Instead, they went out to those who were not believers and told them about Christ.
Backwards?
It occurs to me that if we are trying to attract non-believers to our church services we may have things backwards.
There is a little more to say about this, I will finish it tomorrow.
A couple of days ago I wrote about some observations from my overview of Acts. There is one more thought that I want to share. I also shared that I had a conversation about a friend’s project to develop an AI app that would engage people with the Bible. The target of my friend’s app will be millennials.
Current Church Trends
During the course of the conversation we talked a bit about how churches are altering their services and messages to attract millennials. The idea is that generation is different and so the Bible has to be made relevant to them.
Counter Cultural
The Bible is counter to all generations, all cultures, all people. It is God’s thoughts, His Word, as unregenerate people we are enemies of God, Romans 5:10. It is normal human nature to be repelled by our enemy. There is not much of what they have to say in which I have any interest.
So the notion of attracting those who are not redeemed to come hear something that is counter to their world view strikes me as a futile exercise at best. At this point Acts kicks in.
What Can We Learn from Acts?
Starting in Acts 2:42 we read what was going on in the early Church. They were studying the Word, encouraging one another, and eating together. All of these people were converts. Read the rest of the book, I do not find in any passage, nor in any of the epistles for that matter a place where the apostles were meeting to strategize how to attract non-believers to their meeting.
Instead, they went out to those who were not believers and told them about Christ.
Backwards?
It occurs to me that if we are trying to attract non-believers to our church services we may have things backwards.
There is a little more to say about this, I will finish it tomorrow.
Great post.....I would be interested to hear your thoughts on mine. http://leoladurant.com/
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