Method/Message

From Genesis 11, “From there God scattered them all over the world.“

In this passage the people are gathering and building a city.  They want to gather much of humanity into one place and have the city be well known. God intervenes and confuses their language and sends them out into the world.  An interesting act of God.

Reading this passage I cannot help but see the church.  For many years the model of church has been attractional much like Babel.  Come to us,  look at our buildings, our programs, what we are “doing” for God.  Build and build and build.  I often hear this in our own ministry, we need to build to have more people come.

There is an interesting shift I read about and witness daily.  No longer are we living in an age of Christendom, an age where there is Biblical knowledge, a time where all kids grow up and eventually come back to church or people will come to church and find all their answers.

We are living in a post-modern, post-Christendom time where attractional ministry is not as effective as it used to be.  Does it still work.  Yes.  As well as it used to?  Not really.  This is an important point where each church must chose to “stay the course” or chose to adapt to the world around it.  When I say adapt, hear me very clearly, Jesus did not come with a method but rather a message.

There is a scattering God does each and every time after the people gather.  We may gather on Sunday morning but we scatter back to our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, etc.

The scattering is part of incarnational ministry.  This is the going and being the church, being Jesus to a broken and hurting world.

Many of the people you interact with everyday will never step foot in your church BUT they do interact with you each day.  This is ministry, this is the church in action, this is incarnational ministry.  We adapt the method but always carry the message.