read my soul
I ran across this quote by Reggie McNeal, with whom I am scheduled to take a class first week in August in LA…
Those [American churches] with a refuge mentality view the world outside the church as the enemy. Their answer is to live inside the bubble in a Christian subculture complete with its own entertainment industry. Evangelism in this worldview is about churching the unchurched, not connecting people to Jesus. It focuses on cleaning people up, changing their behavior so Christians (translation: church people) can be more comfortable around them. Refuge churches evidence enormous self-preoccupation. They deceive themselves into believing they are a potent force.     — from The Present Future (a title I wish I’d coined) p9
There are two points here… one, “cleaning people up so we feel comfortable around them” - which just makes Christianity about morals and not a movement; and second, “not connecting people to Jesus” — ah!  That’s the mysterious one, isn’t it? What does it look like to connect people to Jesus, NO - I mean really genuinely connect people to Jesus??? I think hardly any of really know truly. I am going to ask my “persecuted” house church evangelists in Asia what they think it means “to connect people to Jesus.” At the risk of bumper sticker comments, what do you think it REALLY means to “connect people to Jesus?”