Part 2: The Collapse of the Church Culture.

Written by Maurice Goulet


Continued from page 1

I am amazed at how our best church families have no clue as to how to have conversations at home about spiritual subjects. Churches are so busy getting people involved atrepparttar church that they've neglected this fundamental agenda of spiritual formation. The typical church family leaves spiritual stuff to what happens atrepparttar 126786 church, thereby delegating spiritual formation torepparttar 126787 institution. Andrepparttar 126788 institution encourages it!

What if youth ministers spent as much time withrepparttar 126789 parents as they did with their children? This would be a shift for most church expectations of staff. We typically hire children's and youth ministers to run programs for children and young people. In fact, this approach byrepparttar 126790 church may do more to decimaterepparttar 126791 home as a spiritual center than anything coming intorepparttar 126792 home on television orrepparttar 126793 Internet.

As a youth, I grew up inrepparttar 126794 surfing culture. As a surfer, I never planned a single wave, but I did prepare to riderepparttar 126795 waves when they came. God is making waves all aroundrepparttar 126796 North American church. Some churches are going to get to ride them. These arerepparttar 126797 churches that are prepared to get in on what God is up to."

Typical approaches torepparttar 126798 future involve prediction and planning. The better and biblical approach torepparttar 126799 future involves prayer and preparation. The Apostles sitting inrepparttar 126800 Temple onrepparttar 126801 day of Pentecost were not engaged in a strategic planning retreat to planrepparttar 126802 birth ofrepparttar 126803 church andrepparttar 126804 early stages ofrepparttar 126805 Christian movement. Not in their wildest dreams would they have scripted three thousand converts on Day One nor would they have predictedrepparttar 126806 leap ofrepparttar 126807 Spirit torepparttar 126808 Samaritans or torepparttar 126809 Gentiles? Apparently not, based on their responses to both developments. Would they have recruitedrepparttar 126810 rising star of Judaism to becomerepparttar 126811 ultimate leader ofrepparttar 126812 movement? Hardly. God doesrepparttar 126813 planning; we dorepparttar 126814 preparing. He does not say, “I am waiting for you to develop plans I can bless."

Spiritual preparation hasrepparttar 126815 goal of getting God's people in partnership with him in his redemptive mission inrepparttar 126816 world. The five elements of a spiritually prepared architecture are vision, values, results, strengths, and learning. The question we need to begin asking is, how do we cultivate vision? Vision is discovered, not invented. Jesus Christ said, ”I will build my Church”. He isrepparttar 126817 one withrepparttar 126818 vision for our lives andrepparttar 126819 church. It is our job to discover what he has in mind, not to invent something he can get excited about.

I learnedrepparttar 126820 following lesson early in life and it has eased my heart tremendously. God is always at work in every situation before I show up. Asrepparttar 126821 reality of this fact sunk in, I realized that my job was not to analyzerepparttar 126822 situation really well and then to figure out a way to make something happen but rather to see what God is already doing and ask if I had a part to play.

We need to listen to people in our church, we need to look at our town or neighborhood and we need to talk with our leaders. But as we do that we must be focused onrepparttar 126823 question: What is God already doing here? Jesus models this kind of approach in John 5:19 when He says, "I do nothing on my own initiative. I only do what I seerepparttar 126824 Father doing. Further,repparttar 126825 role of a leader is to help his people askrepparttar 126826 question: What do we see God doing here? This isrepparttar 126827 starting point forrepparttar 126828 visioning process.

Maurice Goulet isrepparttar 126829 Author of Lord Of Darkness ~ Lord Of Light. (Unfolding The Signs Of The Times And The Hope Of A New World) Now available Online at www.CDBN.com.

Maurice Goulet is an Ordained Minister and the founder of The Chosen Path Ministries. He Teaches and writes an online newsletter on the principles of building a successful home fellowship. He is also the Author of Lord Of Darkness ~ Lord Of Light.(Unfolding The Signs Of The Times And The Hope Of A New World) Now available Online at www.CDBN.com.


Part 1: The Collapse of the Church Culture.

Written by Maurice Goulet


Continued from page 1

We need to go where people are already hanging out and be prepared to have conversations with them aboutrepparttar great love of our lives. This will require our shifting our efforts from growing churches into transforming communities. They're not coming to us. We've got to go to them.

The first Reformation was about freeingrepparttar 126785 church. The new Reformation is about freeing God's people fromrepparttar 126786 church (the institution). The original Reformation decentralizedrepparttar 126787 church. The new Reformation decentralizes ministry.

The historic Reformation distinguished Christians one fromrepparttar 126788 other. The current Reformation distinguishes followers of Jesus Christ from religious people. In India and other places these people are called "Great Commission Christians" to distinguish them from mere pew sitters.

Today, ministry is being defined largely in church terms and lay people often being viewed as functionary resources to get church work done. The collapse ofrepparttar 126789 church culture andrepparttar 126790 emergence of kingdom growth as a paradigm for renewal spellrepparttar 126791 end of an era of church members playing support roles. Many clergy just don't get this. They viewrepparttar 126792 recruitment difficulties they are experiencing as a motivational issue rather than understandingrepparttar 126793 significant shift in how people are making decisions about how they will spend their lives.

I propose that we begin studyingrepparttar 126794 culture ofrepparttar 126795 people we are ministering to. North American culture is increasingly postmodern. The church in North America is thoroughly modern (i.e., out of touch with its surrounding culture). The result ofrepparttar 126796 modern church's form of spirituality is a North American church that is largely on a head-trip. This is atrepparttar 126797 heart of whyrepparttar 126798 lifestyles and values of people inrepparttar 126799 church mirror so closelyrepparttar 126800 lifestyles and values of people inrepparttar 126801 larger culture. We have a rational faith. The test for orthodoxy typically focuses on doctrinal stances, not character and spiritual connectedness to Christ and others.

In keeping with modernism, Christians in North America practice their faith in a segmented approach, separated from other parts of life (business, family, and so forth). This is why we go to “church” to do our spiritual activity. This is why we don't do spiritual formation at home. That's whatrepparttar 126802 church is for. After all, spiritual “education” should be left torepparttar 126803 professionals who haverepparttar 126804 training and credentials for it.

The end result is parents unable to talk to their kids about God, church members who take their teenagers to church (believing that this activity inoculates them againstrepparttar 126805 influence of a pagan culture) but don't talk about life implications of faith, couples who are embarrassed to pray together -repparttar 126806 list goes on and on. True Christianity starts inrepparttar 126807 home and is built uponrepparttar 126808 following three truths. First, God is no respecter of persons. Everyone inrepparttar 126809 church is an integral part ofrepparttar 126810 Body and is no more or less important then any other. Second, every Christian home can become a center for fellowship. Neighborhood fellowships build strong communities and become centers of outreach for those who are seeking Spiritual nourishment, but do not have a church of their own to attend. Third, every Church building with a local pastor should be a training center to supportrepparttar 126811 home fellowships. This approach will giverepparttar 126812 local pastorrepparttar 126813 time to work with those who haverepparttar 126814 ability to minister to small groups and atrepparttar 126815 same time build unity withinrepparttar 126816 church.

Maurice Goulet isrepparttar 126817 Author of Lord Of Darkness ~ Lord Of Light.(Unfolding The Signs Of The Times And The Hope Of A New World) Now available Online at www.CDBN.com.

Maurice Goulet is an ordained Minister and the founder of The Chosen Path Home Fellowship Ministries. He teaches and writes an online newsletter on the principles of building a successful home fellowsip program. He is also the Author of Lord Of Darkness ~ Lord Of Light. (Unfolding The Signs Of The Times And The Hope Of A New World) Now available Online at www.CDBN.com.


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