As a pastor of a local church (Southern Baptist) I am often amazed at what I see and hear. After my years in the business world and time spent on the campus of a state university I am surprised that I can still be shocked. Paul gave Timothy a warning of what he would continue to face and run into in 2 Timothy 3; he used words like "brutal", "lovers of themselves", "lovers of money", and "slanderous" to describe the actions and attitudes of people. Actually, none of this is a surprise at all, and most of us are used to dealing with this sort of thing and battle these tendencies in our own lives. But I have run into a few things lately that are scary on one hand and offer opportunity on another.
Last week our church hosted a Vacation Bible School for our community. It proved to be a great opportunity to meet and connect with some new families. As always, there were families who attended who already belong to a Bible preaching church, and they and their children were very knowledgeable of the Bible. However, I have to admit that I was surprised to hear a five year old child say "what's pray" when we were about to pray. I was taken back a little when another child confessed that they had never heard of Jesus. At first glance the reality that these children are ignorant of Bible basics is scary, but on another hand it simply shows the opportunity that exists to share God's love with people right in our own neighborhoods who have literally never heard it before. This is exciting!
For those of us who grew up in church it is hard to imagine not praying as a child or knowing about Jesus, but that is today's reality for many right here in the United States. All of this will prove to be a challenge for many churches who have a hard time imagining that there are folks out there who simply aren't "churchy" at all- masses who have never been in church and don't really know what it's all about. But again, that is what's exciting- the opportunity to connect with these people and share the Good News of Jesus Christ with them. After all, this is why we are here! The challenge then is many faceted for the church. How to connect to these people is only the first question. A better question might be "is the church ready and willing to accept them and deal with them once we reach them?" What will discipleship look like in a church where many are ignorant of biblical basics, which is not often the norm in many of the churches with which I am familiar or have attended?
Scary and exciting...right now that is all I have to say...
Oh, for even scarier check out this blog from Albert Mohler entitled "Does Your Pastor Believe in God?" at http://albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=3532
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