Tuesday, June 12, 2012

INCREASE YOUR EXPECTATIONS

Since Francis Chan is scheduled to do two keynotes at next year's Tulsa Workshop, I thought you might like the following quoted from his book, Crazy Love.

We have done everything humanly possible to make church "easy".  We kept the services short and entertaining, discipleship and evangelism optional, and moral standards low.  Our motives were not bad.  We figured we could attract more people by offering Jesus with minimal commitment.  But we ended up producing nominal Christians whose unchanged lives have deterred others from being interested.

There is a new generation rising up.  Young adults are studying the Bible without missing the obvious.  They see how shallow methodology is incongruent with the Jesus of Scripture who asked everything of his followers.  They are bored with Sunday morning productions and long to experience the Holy Spirit.  They need to be challenged with the awesome responsibility of praying for, baptizing, and making disciples of their acquaintances.  They need  to be reminded of the Spirit who supernaturally empowers them for this task.

The days of merely bringing our friends to an event so the pastor can save and disciple them need to end.  New churches must be formed where all believers are expected to do the work of evangelism and discipleship.  This generation sees the potency of a church where pastors equip and shepherd disciple-makers rather than service-attenders.

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