{"id":496,"date":"2008-04-03T15:51:03","date_gmt":"2008-04-03T20:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.185.166.32\/~davidfoster\/?p=496"},"modified":"2009-10-10T15:52:13","modified_gmt":"2009-10-10T20:52:13","slug":"how-the-missional-and-emerging-churches-are-making-the-same-old-mistakes-all-over-again-part-3","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-3\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Missional and Emerging Churches are Making the Same Old Mistakes All Over Again: Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-493\" title=\"poster13\" src=\"http:\/\/192.185.166.32\/~davidfoster\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/poster13.jpg\" alt=\"poster13\" width=\"225\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/poster13.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/poster13-300x238.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 85vw, 225px\" \/>Again, we\u2019re talking about the <span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">both\/and<\/span> rather than the <span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">either\/or<\/span> conversation that I\u2019m hearing from the missional\/emerging world.  One of the emphases that I hear is, go <em>be <\/em>the church rather than go <em>to<\/em> church. Again, it\u2019s both, not one or the other. The Bible doesn\u2019t make this false division in dichotomy, so why should we? We should want as many people as possible to go to church whether they\u2019re Christian or not. But only those who are Christian can go be the church.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re fast coming to a place as George Barna predicted, that we\u2019re having more believers who don\u2019t attend church than who do. This isn\u2019t right. Christians should be gathering together at least once a week to worship. This is God\u2019s idea, not ours. This wasn\u2019t fabricated by Willow Creek or Saddleback. <span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">This is a God idea.<\/span> It goes on all over the world. It has been going on for thousands of years and it will continue to go on. We should celebrate it.<\/p>\n<p>We should encourage people to attend church rather than simply just giving up and saying people have no interest.  <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">We ought to be more concerned about being more interesting rather than simply giving up and saying that gathering in coffeehouses or homes with three or four people is a substitute for gathering in large, worshiping communities where we praise, pray, and proclaim God\u2019s word.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t optional; it\u2019s essential.  And <span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">every Christian, every person who has any God-hunger should be gathering every weekend, all around the world<\/span>. We should encourage this; not simply give up on it because we lack the creativity to provide environments and experiences where people want to attend.<\/p>\n<p>So should we go be the church? Absolutely.  But we should also go to church.  This is not an either\/or, but a both\/and.  <span style=\"color: #00ff00;\">It honors God when we\u2019re committed to both.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Again, we\u2019re talking about the both\/and rather than the either\/or conversation that I\u2019m hearing from the missional\/emerging world. One of the emphases that I hear is, go be the church rather than go to church. Again, it\u2019s both, not one or the other. The Bible doesn\u2019t make this false division in dichotomy, so why should &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/how-the-missional-and-emerging-churches-are-making-the-same-old-mistakes-all-over-again-part-3\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How the Missional and Emerging Churches are Making the Same Old Mistakes All Over Again: Part 3&#8221;<\/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\/496"}],"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=496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}