Conversion or Conversations??

I read this last night.

In a post modern world we should count conversations rather than conversions. In other words the church should not be driven by numbers of new people, converts or members but by the conversations that occur within the community regarding the Kingdom of God.

So are "Kingdom conversations" equal to seeing people make a decision to follow Christ? I guess there is a wider debate to be had about the place on conversion in the 21st century. My head as a Salvationist says that providing opportunity for people to make a decision is part of who we are, our history and a tool for spreading the good news.

But my heart says that we do not live in a world where people can make such a clear cut choice (for various reasons i.e unable to live up to the standard, commitment is to much etc) and sign on a dotted line to say that they are a Christian. Certainly in my time in Aspley it has been the conversations that have led to decisions, changes, opportunities and deepen faith. I don't need to record them but store them as encouragement for me and the church.

By it's very nature the good news of Christ will also stir peoples hearts to change but is that how we measure the effectiveness of a church in sharing the story of God.

Matt

What have I been thinking about lately?

Thanks to Brian Mclaren's book "A New Kind of Christian", I have had loads of stuff running through my head lately and just wanted to get it out of my head as it started to hurt!!!

I have been mulling over what the challenge of the church is in the 21st century, what should the church look like, focus on and do to show the heart of God. Is every church suppose to grow numerically and look for bigger premises or is planting the future? Is the church to be poor or rich? How important is Sunday as part of the churches weekly life? Is Post-modernity something to be embraced or is it an enemy of the church?

Not really sure what I think at the moment but that's OK. I believe that as part of a healthy christian journey we must wrestle with these questions and seek God's inspiration to discover the future of the church other wise we will have none.

Over the next few blogs, I will look at a few of the issues.

Matt

Getting away

Being away with Lizzy is great. We are in st ives with friends just chilling out and eating far too much. It has great to get away, too take stock of whats going on at church, read and get lots of fresh air. Cant wait too get back and see what God has in store for us in the coming months. Matt

Patience

Lizzy and I went to see "Strictly Come Dancing - Live" last night. I have to say that I really enjoyed it. The evening's only down point was getting out of the car park afterwards.

We were on the level 9 of the car park with most of the audience fulfilling the spaces. There were large lines of people getting their tickets with only one visible attendant, which didn't help. Once we had our ticket and got back to the car we had to sit for 20 mins before we moved anywhere. within a few moments of getting back to our car the beeping started of impatient drivers waiting in line. Not only that car inched forward every so often to gain that extra few inches in the line. I sat there relaxed and content with my lot and spending time with Lizzy. Yes it was frustrating but really not worth getting wound up about.

It seems that we have become a society where we are unwilling to wait, impatience to get on with our own life no matter what is going on around us. Sadly, I am sure that there will be people who would have got all worked up, maybe even writing complaints when they got home but for me, I got home safely, went to bed and forgot all about it (apart from writing this blog).

How often do we treat God like this, expecting Him to sort out all our problems and issues instantly and for our benefit and not His. This week why don't you stop what your doing and wait.....................................

Matt

P.S - As I was writing this, the story below was being played on News 24.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7490776.stm

A note from a piece by a US composer is to be played this weekend in a German town in what has been called the world's slowest and longest concert.
The church organ in Halberstadt will play the next - sixth - chord of John Cage's As Slow As Possible work.
The performance began in 2000 and is scheduled to last a total of 639 years.
The idea of taking so long to get through the composer's piece is to find a musical way of countering the hustle and bustle of modern life.