DANGEROUS!! I’m an import from California. In the south when I talk about what the vision I have for Alabama and how to change 
the face of church everyone says ….ah, she’s from California. True, but I have lived in the South more than I lived in California. I like it here. I have also heard “…gasp she is a woman!….that’s why her vision is different.” Yep.. I’m a girl! The vision I have is bigger than my gender and nothing to do with it.
Why do people see the vision I have for the way we do church as dangerous? It is because they live in a small town mentality. I recently read a blog about small towns written by singles and felt there was so many correlations to the way we do church and what’s wrong with the church I thought I would share the summation made by that blogger.
“All too often the general population of the small town becomes so wrapped up in each other and each other’s lives that they completely forget that an outside world actually exists. They reject new ideas and alienate anyone from the outside world and look upon them as a possible Viking invader. There will most certainly be a hierarchy of who to know and who not to know with potentially hazardous results if you were to befriend the “wrong people”.
Fortunately if you find yourself in this situation you will also be aware that an outside world does actually exist with people who have diverse and open minds and are prepared to move on with the times as to secure a better world for future generations.
The very fact that you and only you in a whole town of interbred misfits know of such a place gives you the power to pack your bags and get out of there before your brain stops working and you begin to resemble something from the walking dead.”
I really do believe that’s how we do church. We have adopted a small town mentality about everything we do. Even big churches, when you strip off the hype reproduce themselves into the same pattern and same mold.
27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” Corinthians 1: 27-31
This is the verse God gave me when he called me. I have walked in that calling for 30 plus years. I do not see the way we do church as relevant or vital to reach the 70% or the college age who walk away from God. Most churches are still focused on the traditional family. Non-traditional families and singles get mentioned only in passing. Yet census data has long shown the percent of “traditional” families decreasing and in fact “traditional” families now make up less than half of all families.
The church needs to reach the lost. So God has called us to form Bridging the Gap Ministries. We are a church…we are just starting out. We will do it different. Watch my Blog or our web page (www.BTG-Ministries.com) to see where we are doing it, when we are doing it and how we are doing it. We believe in the message of Jesus Christ, but we see it being presented in a relevant manner to the masses of over looked and marginalized people groups.
We are DANGEROUS for Christ. Watch us win the world!
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Jenny!
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