Stetzer & Fitch on Church

// February 2nd, 2009 // Church Life, Sunday Recap, Video

This is David Fitch and Ed Stetzer having a great conversation about what it means to be a missional church in the secular West.  The term “missional” and “Miseo Dei” has gotten pretty muddy these days.  It’s become a bit of a junk drawer term that tends to mean “everything we don’t like about modernism and mega-churches”.  But this isn’t just a clarifying conversation for those who are confused about the terms.  I think it’s a pretty forward thinking conversation.

What I found particularly helpful in this video was the discussion about “attractional” vs. “missional”  churches.  I like how they both avoid allowing the conversation to degrade into a rehash of the all-too-familiar culture wars debate between the hymn singers and the head bangers.

Check it out.  It’s worth your time. But, what I’m really interested in is your thoughts after watching it.  This is a topic that the American Church MUST engage in.

Ed Stetzer & David Fitch – a missional conversation from Missional Tribe on Vimeo.

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  1. Greg in Mexico says:
    February 3, 2009 at 12:03 am

    Some quotes I liked:

    "The church should not be attracTIONAL it should be attracTIVE. But it can't be a show. It's the show that separates people from the gospel and turns it into a product."

    "Witness vs Evangelism – how evangelism got compartmentalized, how the gospel got packaged and sold. Of course that worked when we were in Christendom and everyone knew what you were talking about – 'God has a plan, the Four Spiritual Laws,' etc, etc…but now we have to have this 'witness.' How people understand the gospel is not just from what you say but how you live and your character and by the way you engage and have social interaction with other people in your community. And so 'witness' has to be a fully-orbed presence in the community before people even understand what you mean when you say 'Jesus Christ has died for your sins; He saved you and wants to be Lord of your life, will you come in to the Kingdom of God.' "

    "Justice without Jesus is not justice, and Jesus without justice is not Jesus."

    Other interesting points:
    There's a much longer conversion process in a post-Christian culture – David Fitch gives it 5 years.

    We've got to get rid of a reductionistic presentation of the gospel b/c people no longer know the basics.

    Reply
    • Ben Cotten says:
      February 3, 2009 at 12:22 am

      Yep. The same things resonated with me too. The temptation to be purely attracTIONAL is incredibly strong in our consumeristic Church culture. Frankly, it's easier to put on a show than it is to repent and be Christ to each other and the culture. A lot easier. Just raise enough money and you're golden.

      Being attracTIVE requries the working of a miracle in the hearts of people to "convert" them from me-centered Christians to Christ-followers. As hard as cold-call evangelism is, dropping the 4 spiritual laws on a stranger followed by a memorized prayer is a lot easier than trying to be an accurate reflection of Jesus to the world.

      Reply

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