Crowder

I got to see David Crowder at a conference I am at, and then again for a service that evening where Donald Miller spoke. It was pretty awesome, Crowder was sweet as always. At the conference however the last session was a sort of panel discussion with Dan Kimbell and some other pastors on his book They Like Jesus but not the Church.

He basically polled a whole bunch of twenty-somethings and found them hungry to hear about Jesus, but not from the church. The consensus from the book and anyone paying attention is that the church has missed the boat. Now, most people in my circle understand and are dealing with this issue, so this probably isn't news. Nevertheless, I felt that it was a good step to have an open, large group, pretty no-holds- barred discussion with pastors and church leaders about how to push the church into a new era in western culture, which is absolutely catered to the suburban middle class right now.

A couple of really good points that were made:
- this is the first time in history that a church has the possibility of having 5 generations represented in its community. Old and young will not be pleased by the same show.

-20 years ago people (culturally) came to church because they thought it might do well and then were turned away with crapping, outdated music. This is being remedied, but now people (culturally) don't really just go to church so why is the show such a big deal, or more importantly the most open door to knowing Christ?

-The Christian bubble is the biggest wall to non-Christians, this is against the call of church, hence --sin. People who have a bad view of Christians usually do not have any Christian friends so their perception is built around the guy pushing a tract on a street, or holding picket signs outside abortion clinics and concerts. How do they not have any Christian friends?

Yeah, that's just the surface. Can I just say that the thought that many of the people polled do not have Christian friends is the most painful to think about. Obviously, we are supposed to be obedient to God and grow spiritually and the like, but Christianity . . .aka being like Christ . . . is based on love. Love means growing relationships not just being polite, though some could start there. Anyways, I'll probably bring some more on this as I process it.

Go make a friend