What DOES the Church need? (Part II)
Monday, June 05, 2006
I guess it’s about time I reply to the comments on my last post. First of all I want to thank all you who commented - some very interesting thoughts to say the least. One thing I found interesting was the themes of discipleship, love and community that arose. Here’s a quick point form summary of some of the things I picked up on. Before I summarize I need to throw in this clause: I know I am missing stuff in this recap - if you feel I missed something really important then I am sorry and please feel free to let me know what I missed.
- The church needs a revolution
- People with a theological understanding
- People with cultural understanding
- Discipleship
- External focus rather than internal
- To get rid of comfort zones
- A positive attitude of the church that is willing to critique honestly
- Love
- Lovers of the church
- Christians who Christians 24/7
- Bridges between ages & cultures
- Discipleship/mentoring
- Workers and harvesters
- 1 Cor. 13
- Accountability
- People using their gifts
- To know and teach the Gospel and its entire message
- To understand salvation/eternity as now
- A willingness to contextualize our ministries
- Parents discipling children
- To refocus on scripture and then base our ministry on what we are called to do
- To meet in twos and threes
- A positive attitude - less cynicism
- A contagious love
- An inclusive community
- Honesty and openness
- Humility
- To be in the world even though we are not of it
- Workers
- Disciple makers
- To love those outside the church
- To love by deed
- Prayer
- To love each other
- To love God
- To live out forgiveness
That’s all I have for now, just a simple summary. Yes, I do have an opinion but you will have to wait a bit longer for it. In the mean time feel free to summarize further or add any points I missed. And if that's not enough for discussion here's another question... How might a Bible College (let's say... a school like Bethany College) help the Church with these areas of need?
