Church to Connect Essay

Our future is not to be found in our preservation but in our investment (19). The best government agency to predict the future is to create it (20). few people ar attending church because of the diminishing influence of the Nazarene on the church itself. We equated being a good citizen with being a good Christian. We buy the farmd without persecution and soon found ourselves without conviction. We didnt lose America we gave her forth In our panic and powerlessness we turned to political look upons to desire to regain what we once had through spiritual awakening .Yet as a moral majority we could not accomplish what God could through Gideons few (28). Once we were called Christians by an unbelieving world and immediately we call ourselves Christians and the world calls us hypocrites. Is it possible that it wasnt the nation that was becoming dangerously secular but the church? We were neither relevant nor transcendent. We rich person ferment, in the worst of ways, religio us. We are the founders of the secular nation (29). The church became a refuge from the world rather than a force in the world. Predictability and perceptual constancy became dominant themes.The gospel shifted from a church on a burster to a church that supported missions (30). How could we ever think that the Christian cartel would be safe when its central metaphor is an instrument of close? It is not a coincidence that baptism is a water grave depicting death and resurrection. It is no less significant that the ongoing ordinance of the Lords Supper is a reminder of sacrifice. How did we ever develop a safe holiness from such a dangerous faith? (33) Institutions preserve culture date movements create culture (34).For eld the bulk of American Christians who were committed to missions could solo participate through giving and praying. Today, the call to crosscultural ministry doesnt even hold going it just requires staying with a purpose (45). Where once the infidel lived in the country and the danger of the city was to be Christianized now Christians tend to live away from the cities and view the urban dweller as the true pagan (46). Gideon was focused on mass God was focused on pulsation (69). Its hard to believe that a movement born of visionaries and dreamers would become dominantly known for its traditions and rituals (138).Just because a person cannot read doesnt mean she lacks the capacity to learn. Ones present condition is not an extension of potential, but of development (211). III. SALIENT POINTS/ANALYSIS 1. The Need for the Church to subsume with this Generation The author speaks about how in the past 40 years communities have changed dramatically yet many local churches have stayed the same. This explains the irrelevancy and bankruptcy of the church in regards to being salt and light and operation as agents of change for culture.Even the way the gospel is communicated has to be changed if we are going to reach this present generation. One of the dramatic changes in our surroundings is the shift from words to images. To do church in a way that is entirely textdriven is the kiss of death. People dont read, they simply observe. beyond the emergence of a postliterate society, we have a culture raised on entertainment (17). As McManus states, While not many churches perform their service in Latin today, our language, style, music, and methods are pretty much Latin to the unchurched world (81).