New And Improved
We are always searching for the next new thing, the "in" thing, the thing that everyone is talking about. Every new gadget is supposed to be better, quicker, and easier than all the others before it. People spend crazy amounts of money chasing after quick fixes and miracle products that make you lose weight overnight and erase wrinkles in one application.
New is - the next new thing.
New is - the next new thing.
No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
Matthew 9:16-17 ESV
These verses have recently come to mean a lot to me. I can't keep doing the same old thing and expect to get different results. If I want a better end then I have to change the way I've been starting. This is also true for the church. The way we've been "doing" church is not causing people to stampede our facilities in an effort to get what we have.
Ministry leaders around the world are constantly looking for new programs and events that will bring people through their doors. Thousands of hours and dollars are spent in planning and research by churches who are looking to increase the size of their congregation. Don't get me wrong, our hearts are right. We have the answers to the issues of our hurt and broken world but they don't want to listen to what we have to say. So, we keep looking for some new way to help them accept the truth.
We don't need another new and improved worship song or church service. What we need are real, everyday people who are going through the ups and downs of life living by faith in God. Lives genuinely changed and transformed by the power of God make a better message to non-believers than any Sunday morning church service.
New people will not beat our doors down demanding we tell them all about God until they see us living differently than we have been and with better results than they get. We tend to want the things we think are better than what we already have. If we make being a Christian look boring and demanding no one will want any part of it. But if we live freely in the love of Christ with joy and peace in every circumstance, then we are showing them something real, something better than what they have, and it becomes something they want.
Stop falling for the never ending chase for some new and improved method of reaching people. Get out among them and live your faith. Treat people the way Jesus did and they will want what you have. Treat them with respect and accept them where they are, the same way God has done for you.
Genuine faith expressed in your daily life is the best way to engage people in a relationship with God.
Heidirn
Matthew 9:16-17 ESV
These verses have recently come to mean a lot to me. I can't keep doing the same old thing and expect to get different results. If I want a better end then I have to change the way I've been starting. This is also true for the church. The way we've been "doing" church is not causing people to stampede our facilities in an effort to get what we have.
Ministry leaders around the world are constantly looking for new programs and events that will bring people through their doors. Thousands of hours and dollars are spent in planning and research by churches who are looking to increase the size of their congregation. Don't get me wrong, our hearts are right. We have the answers to the issues of our hurt and broken world but they don't want to listen to what we have to say. So, we keep looking for some new way to help them accept the truth.
We don't need another new and improved worship song or church service. What we need are real, everyday people who are going through the ups and downs of life living by faith in God. Lives genuinely changed and transformed by the power of God make a better message to non-believers than any Sunday morning church service.
New people will not beat our doors down demanding we tell them all about God until they see us living differently than we have been and with better results than they get. We tend to want the things we think are better than what we already have. If we make being a Christian look boring and demanding no one will want any part of it. But if we live freely in the love of Christ with joy and peace in every circumstance, then we are showing them something real, something better than what they have, and it becomes something they want.
Stop falling for the never ending chase for some new and improved method of reaching people. Get out among them and live your faith. Treat people the way Jesus did and they will want what you have. Treat them with respect and accept them where they are, the same way God has done for you.
Genuine faith expressed in your daily life is the best way to engage people in a relationship with God.
Heidirn
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