Originally posted July 19, 2010. Reposted September 14, 2011.
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Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv, often says, “We’ll, do anything short of sin to reach people for Christ.” I’d like for us to consider that statement for a minute. More specifically, I want us to consider the outcome if that statement is not true of all churches.
If a church is not willing to “anything short of sin to reach people for Christ”, that means they are willing to stop short of reaching people for Christ. Sadly, I’ve seen this in too many churches all over the world.
We Christians allow the silliest things to stop us short of reaching people for Christ:
- Musical styles
- Out-dated traditions
- The size of facilities
- Small-thinking about growth
- The belief that our church is “big enough”
- The notion that the staff is responsible for evangelism
- Slow decision-making processes
- The length of our services
- The lack of good kid’s ministry
- Lack of money
If churches don’t embrace and live out the phrase, “We will do anything, short of sin, to reach people for Christ”, then they are willing to sin by not reaching people for Christ. Frankly, that’s a scary place to be!
I totally agree!. The first time I heard this was Bill Hybels about 10 years ago at a Willow Creek Conf. He was talking about the church being willing to take risks. What we too often see even in “contemporary churches is a comfort level of status quo.. Services stay the same. Ministries keep doing what has worked in the past/ We lack future vision. We stop taking risks to reach our culture. Problem is our culture is changing every day, and the church stays the same. We stop dreaming about what can be and become comfortable with what is.
Without Change there is no Change. If what you are doing now is not working (reaching and building fully devoted followers) maybe it’s time to for change.