a couple of things

There's a lot in today's note. Some days it just happens. Sorry...

Matthew 5:27 Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector's booth. "Follow me and be my disciple," Jesus said to him. 28 So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.
  29 Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor. Many of Levi's fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with them. 30 But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus' disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with such scum?"
  31 Jesus answered them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor—sick people do. 32 I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent."

When Lynn & I helped start in the '90's a new church in south Houston County, we had another church buy property next door to us & build a church. Many people asked us how we felt about having "competition" move in next door. We just laughed! There were PLENTY of people who never went to church within a 5 mile radius - enough for us, or neighbor church, & at least 10 or 12 others!

When Pastor John started Christ Chapel in Macon, & we helped start the other Christ Chapel campus churches in the their cities, many people said we didn't need another church. Once again, we just laughed! There are plenty of people who never go to church in all of these towns!

As we've lived here in Blairsville, waiting on God's timing, one of the many things on our hearts is to offer a fellowship that is appropriate for our culture & time. Many people have asked us why we need this. We sometimes just laugh. Because there seems to be plenty of people up here who never go to church.

In each of these cases, people don't understand that what we're about is NOT trying to capture the people who already are a part of a faith family. We're interested in those who AREN'T.
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And now a separate thought, or maybe a thought that goes along with that...

Luke 5:37 "And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. 38 New wine must be stored in new wineskins.

Here's what my Life Application Bible footnotes these verses with...

"Wineskins" were goatskins sewn together at the edges to form watertight bags. Because new wine expands as it ages, it had to be put in new, pliable wineskins. A used skin, having become more rigid, would burst & spill the wine.

"Like old wineskins, the Pharisees were too rigid to accept Jesus, who could not be contain in their traditions or rules. Christianity required new approaches, new traditions, new structures.

"Our church programs & ministries should not be so structured that they have no room for a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit, a new method, or a new idea. We, too, must be careful that our heart does not become so rigid that it prevents us from accepting new ways of thinking that Christ brings. We need to keep our heart pliable so we can accept Jesus' life-changing message."


And here's an excerpt from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. on his blog today of Donald Miller.


"A general rule in creating stories is that characters don’t want to change. They must be forced to change. Nobody wakes up and starts chasing a bad guy or dismantling a bomb unless someone forces them to do so. The bad guys just robbed your house and are running off with your last roll of toilet paper, or the bomb is strapped to your favorite cat. It’s that sort of thing that gets a character moving.


"The rule exists in story because it’s a true thing about people. Humans are designed to seek comfort and order, and so if they have comfort and order, they tend to plant themselves, even if their comfort isn’t all that comfortable. And even if they secretly want for something better."

I heard an interview on the radio with a woman who worked with people in domestic abuse situations. She said most woman who come to her for help go back to the situation they came out of, back to the man who abused them. When the interviewer asked why, the woman said that even though most women had family they could escape to and friends who would take them in, they returned to the abusive man because the situation, as bad as it might be, was familiar. People fear change, she said. Though their situations may be terrible, at least they have a sense of control; at least they know what to expect. Change presents a world of variables that are largely out of their control. And then the woman said this: “The women in these situations are afraid to choose a better story, because though their current situation might be bad, at least it’s a bad story they are familiar with. So they stay.”


Sorry I started writing this morning & couldn't shut up.

So what am I trying to say?

We're not about scarfing up people who are already going to church. We're about encountering & impacting those who don't know Jesus personally.

A conservative estimate these days is that our American culture changes about every 3 years - read that again - every 3 years. There's things in my refrigerator older than that!

If someone was crazy enough to send you & me as missionaries to Northern China, what would we do? We'd speak Chinese, we'd wear their clothing, we'd eat their food, we'd listen to their music, we'd study their cultures, customs, traditions. In short, we'd use EVERY means & facets of their culture to make them feel comfortable so that we might capture them for Jesus.

Why is it then so easy for us to see that this is the way to win people to Jesus in Northern China, but we can't see that's the way to win people to Jesus in postmodern America? Our culture changes so rapidly now that it's hard to keep up. Why do we insist on doing things in tired, worn out, hackneyed ways? Why can't we use the essence of our ever-changing culture to impact people for Jesus? It's just a tool to get the job done. And when that tool doesn't work anymore, find one that does!


Where would you & I be if those who reached us hadn't used the tools that made us stop for a minute & listen to them, and consider that Jesus just might have something to say to us?