Posted on 04/09/2008 9:28:50 AM PDT by Terriergal
Non-Christians are more receptive to the Gospel today than at any point in recent American history, according to one research team.
Tue, Apr. 08, 2008 Posted: 15:19:18 PM EST
Non-Christians are more receptive to the Gospel today than at any point in recent American history, according to one research team.
"We are seeing a new level of curiosity among those who are seeking out religion – and we rejoice that people are willing to hear about Jesus," said Sam S. Rainer III, who heads Rainer Research.
While Rainer said he finds the increased receptivity among non-believers encouraging, the problem lies with churches not being able to connect with them and the culture.
"Christians and non-Christians intermingle socially every day, at work, the ballpark, and in the grocery store. But we’ve lost a sense of urgency in sharing the story of Jesus Christ," he told The Christian Post. "We rush home from work in our cars, pull in the garage by the push of the button, and disappear in our homes to watch two hours of TV, only to get up and do it all over again. We’ll stand for hours in line to purchase a Nintendo Wii, but we cringe at crossing the street to get to know our neighbors.
"Believers, me included, need to do a better job at building a sense of community in our own neighborhoods," he added.
But there are churches that have contextualized the timeless message of the Gospel to the culture and are connecting successfully with their communities, Rainer noted.
"Nothing excites me more as a pastor and researcher than hearing about churches that connect with their communities and unashamedly proclaim the name of Christ in a way people can understand," he said.
Ryan Bolger, assistant professor of church in contemporary culture in Fuller Theological Seminary's School of Intercultural Studies and co-author of Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Communities in Postmodern Cultures, has found many churches that are expressing their faith in ways that resonate with those in the 21st century. And they go beyond outreaches and trendy worship that only aim to draw people to church services.
"Donald McGavran ... said a person shouldn't have to change cultures to find God," Bolger said, referring to a former Fuller professor. "A person's difficulty with the Christian faith is often sociological, not theological."
After five years of research on emerging churches, Bolger discovered places that were expressing the Christian faith in cultural forms that made sense to a population that has become more urban. Churches that have been able to connect with their communities were more relational, focused on practices and less institutional, he found.
Such churches incorporated aspects of people's daily lives – whether it's ipods, art or music – into their worship to "weave together the sacred and the secular," he said in a recent interview featured on Fuller's Web site. Along with creativity, these emerging churches have refocused on the life of Jesus as a model way to live. Thus, inviting the outsider in, hospitality, forgiving, peacemaking and praying together daily are central, Bolger pointed out.
"It's not extra, it's not an outreach. It's actually the Gospel. So it's something they have to get right," he said, noting that the emerging churches look to express faith in the workplace, neighborhoods and in everyday activity and are not necessarily looking for ways to bring people to church services.
"The reason they do that is to ground their faith in the practices of everyday so it's not a detached other worldly only faith, but it's something that connects to their everyday," said Bolger.
Lillian Kwon
Christian Post Reporter
What does "recent American History" mean anyway? Last year? Two years? ten years? What?
..the Church Growth Movement and the Emerging Church are the latest and probably last forms of post-modernism with ecclesiastical dressing...
The Oprah movement as I dub it.
“What a load of HOOEY! What is happening is the MESSASGE IS CHANGING. It is becoming MAN CENTERED”
I’ve seen no evidence of this in my personal walk.
What message did you get saved under? I also know many people who are completely unaware what is going on in the church at large, for one reason or another.
“What message did you get saved under?”
Not sure what you mean, but the passage that caused me to accept Christ was Hebrews 4-12. I was reading the Bible out of curiosity (or so I thought) and that one has always stuck with me. I believe that I heard it an awful lot as a kid as well, from a Pastor of some repute, but one that you would have never likely heard of. But it was only as an adult that I have begun to understand it.
**What a load of HOOEY! What is happening is the MESSASGE IS CHANGING. It is becoming MAN CENTERED and that is why, if they are “more receptive than ever before” that they are receiving it. **
Or are they really doing it?
**The Oprah movement as I dub it.**
I’ve always called that nonsense “New Age.*
My church is a very conservative Church and we are seeing growth by leaps and bounds.
I just googled Fuller and they’re associated with all churches. This is confusing.
My own pastor received his doctorate from Fuller. That doesn’t mean anything. He is still Traditional in the true sense of the word.
You may not have seen any evidence in your own personal walk, but I have personally witnessed several congregations led over the cliff by the new age “Pied Pipers”.
Well, since you brought it up, what are you saved from, and how?
Fuller is a new age seminary.
Our local liberal baptist college has a female prof teaching “feminist theology”. Her PhD is from Fuller.
New Age is human universalistic works theology.
Anything that teaches that we can make the world a utopia and cure all its ills with oneness is new age.
Jesus knows who his church is. And I am very suspect of “theologians” who seem to know better than what Jesus has revealed to us about this world. We are warned stearnly about false teachers in the Bible. Some of these same teachers think Jesus’ words are a little outdated for them.
Jesus knows who his church is. And I am very suspect of “theologians” who seem to know better than what Jesus has revealed to us about this world.
That’s the attitude of the pastors of the church/denomination we left. That line that the Mythbusters guys used to say, “Don’t try this at home...we are what you call ‘experts’” used to strike me as the same attitude as our pastors. Whatever you do.....don’t read the Bible at home on your own without OUR (liberal)interpretation of it. You’ll likely to hurt yourself with it. We saw the writing on the wall that it was time to go “soon”. However, it was the New Age infiltration and the out-and-out occult activities by certain church leaders that was the last straw for us.
Some of my friends sent me this link about Oprah and Eckhart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA
Grunthor: I’ve seen no evidence of this in my personal walk.
I think where it shows up first is in one's prayer life. It's a matter of praying that God's will to be done regardless verses "God, I really would like....".
Non-Christians are more receptive to the Gospel today than at any point in recent American history, according to one research team.
The cynic in me says that this is a sign that they're not hearing the true gospel.
"What? Your god died? On a cross????"
“You may not have seen any evidence in your own personal walk, but I have personally witnessed several congregations led over the cliff by the new age “Pied Pipers”.”
If you are talking of the motivational speakers on tv playing the part of “Preacher” then in that, I agree....I hadn’t thought of those guys.
I didn’t bring it up.
It was those know-it-all theologians who instigated nailing Our Savior to the cross 2000 years ago. And the synogogues of satan haven’t changed much.
They wouldn’t believe who HE was even back then. They felt that they had the “authority” to tell Him who He was.
The best analogy I can make to the followers of those who reinvent Jesus today is this:
If someone you love tells you that while they do love and respect you, they do not believe that your parents are who you claim, nor did you ever live in the town in which you were born.
What kind of love is that? This makes us understand the depth of His grace, love, and forgiveness for those who know not what they do.
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