Comments on: Churches Can’t Be Trusted

By: BradBlocksom

BradBlocksom — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 23:49:59 +0000

@ChrisMorton82 Chris – I can definitely appreciate your perspective here. And in fairness, we could look to 1Cor 14:24 as another example of “Visitors” to churches in the Apostolic age. But what I don’t believe is that the currently popular approach of “invite your friends to church so I (the Pastor) can preach an evangelistic sermon to them, and thus they become converted” fits well with the NT portrayal of mission and evangelism (NOTE: euangelion means proclaiming the good news, not proselytizing, and the Great Commission says to make disciples, not converts) – i.e. conversion is an entry point, not an end goal (see Scot McKnight’s the King Jesus Gospel).I’m starting from Acts 2:42f. as a model for the internal activities of the church. I’m also admittedly influenced by Bob Weber’s Encyclopedia of Christian Worship (Vol 1 – Biblical Foundations of Christian Worship) which states repeatedly that in the early church preaching was not practiced inside the church. Proclamation of the gospel was done to those outside the church (i.e. the unconverted). What was done inside the church was Teaching the believers how to live as disciples of Jesus. I’m also influenced by brittmerrick ‘s understanding of the church gathered and scattered.See also my good friend lukegeraty ‘s blog on the tension between pragmatic practitioners (which I take it you may be alluding to above) and scholars (which I tend to be a bit of a biblicist): http://thinktheology.org/on-being-suspect-why-im-cautious-about-both-pragmatic-practitioners-scholars/In closing, I’ll admit that (despite my critiques above) I haven’t yet mastered Marketplace Evangelism in my own life, as I’m still on the journey of sorting all of this out both theologically & practically. – Sorry for the rant. G&P!

By: BradBlocksom

BradBlocksom — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 23:17:39 +0000

@ChrisMorton82 @BradBlocksom

By: ChrisMorton82

ChrisMorton82 — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:56:43 +0000

@BradBlocksom I understand what you’re getting at Brad, but don’t you think “unbiblical” is a little strong? Afterall do you really thing the Jerusalem church never invited people to hang out and listen to the Apostles? Didn’t the Samaritan woman bring her neighbors to hear Jesus? Let’s use a multiplicity of approaches, for the different people who will respond to different things.

By: BradBlocksom

BradBlocksom — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 23:18:02 +0000

And quite frankly, the approach of “invite your friends to church” is unbiblical! And it reveals a clear lack of understanding of the church gathered and the church scattered. The church gathers for worship, prayer, fellowship and teaching – not evangelism! The mission is out there, in the world, where we are called to proclaim & bring the good news of the kingdom (Luke 8:1).