{"id":492,"date":"2008-08-07T15:45:44","date_gmt":"2008-08-07T20:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.185.166.32\/~davidfoster\/?p=492"},"modified":"2009-10-10T15:49:27","modified_gmt":"2009-10-10T20:49:27","slug":"how-the-missional-and-emerging-churches-are-making-the-same-old-mistakes-all-over-again-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/how-the-missional-and-emerging-churches-are-making-the-same-old-mistakes-all-over-again-part-5\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Missional and Emerging Churches are Making the Same Old Mistakes All Over Again: Part 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"poster13\"I was asked a key question several years ago that really puts this dilemma into perspective. It was by one of the leaders of my church who wasn\u2019t with me. And I first realized it, not by his distance or lack of smiling, lack of tithing, or lack of attending, but by the subtle difference he exposed in his thinking to this question. Here it is.<\/p>\n

In consideration of opening a satellite north of town, while casting the vision to all of the leadership, this one leader asked this question. \u201cI\u2019m confused. Are you trying to reach people, or build a church?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It sounds like an innocent question, but it exposed a real crack in the foundation of his understanding.<\/p>\n

At the time, something in me told me that this was a foundational question, that this was a radically different view of values. And I responded this way. \u201cWould you rather breathe in, or breathe out? It seems to me, one is worthless without the other.<\/span>\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the very point I\u2019m making. You can\u2019t build a church without reaching people. And you can\u2019t reach people without wanting to build up the one organization that Jesus Christ died for love of, and that is his church. <\/span>To say that you want to build a church for the people you have and ignore everyone else is blasphemy. I said it \u2013 blasphemy. It dishonors God and it cuts you off from the flow of His grace, without question.<\/p>\n

But to want to reach people without teaching them to be the church, teaching them how to gather, to grow, and to give back to a hurting world is equally narrow-minded and short-sighted.<\/p>\n

So which do we want to do? Build a church, or reach people? We want to do both. But you have to reach people before you can build a church because the church is people. That should go without saying.<\/p>\n

I know this has been a long rant on this subject, but I beg you to be a both\/and, not an either\/or thinker.<\/span> Let\u2019s not fall into the same old ruts of our fundamentalist, evangelical, seeker, purpose-driven, missional, or emerging church past and present. Let\u2019s just be the church and trust that God\u2019s promise still prevails.<\/span> You remember it don\u2019t you? \u201cI will build my church.\u201d Yea God, what a joy to be on the winning side!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was asked a key question several years ago that really puts this dilemma into perspective. It was by one of the leaders of my church who wasn\u2019t with me. And I first realized it, not by his distance or lack of smiling, lack of tithing, or lack of attending, but by the subtle difference … Continue reading “How the Missional and Emerging Churches are Making the Same Old Mistakes All Over Again: Part 5”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}