All posts in Reaching The Lost
The Tension Between Being Spiritual & Being Practical
There 2 schools of thought when it comes to measuring spiritual growth. One school sums up a person’s spiritual expansion by: 1.) The quantity & quality of their time in prayer and reading the Bible. (the longer you pray, and the more you read, the better) 2.) The level of commitment they give to their to church. (the more involved and the more you serve, the better) This school is very inward focused. If you can spend 3 hours on your face before God, then that’s a big W in this circle.
The second school of thought grades one’s spiritual improvement by: 1.) Their community. (small groups or life groups are key here. “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future”) 2.) Their philanthropy. (how much of their money & time they give to causes, responding to natural disasters, involvement in city programs and community engagement is critical here)
It’s a shame that these schools of thought have opposed each other for years, but I’m beginning to see a new school that has a balance of both. I don’t think you can make your bed in either school and boast about anything you’ve done. “Pentecostals” have way too often found themselves inside the doors of the church expecting lost people to want to come in. And “non-denoms” have way too long found themselves outside the doors of the church at ground zero of some lost people’s hurt and pain with no spiritual potency to actually do anything about their hurt and their pain. It’s almost become bragging rights to simply be around lost people.
You could provide scriptures to support whatever it is you want to do, but no matter who you are, we all could use a little balance one way or the other.
Lost and Found
There’s a trend in American Churches where the more spiritual the church is, the less creative it becomes for its attenders. Stereotypically, uber creative churches are churches “lost people would want to come to”, and are often times… considered less spiritual where professional Christians would say, “It’s cool there, but I’m not really growing.” Creative churches get mad at super spiritual churches for speaking in tongues during services because they believe it confuses the lost or flat-out pushes them away. Uber spiritual churches that practice the “gifts of the spirit” on a regular basis pigeon-hole practical and creative churches for “watering down the gospel.” My personal take on should the church be more focused on reaching the lost… or more focused on growing the seasoned vet… I have no idea. In a perfect world, we’d say it SHOULD be both. But the truth is… most churches, in action, pick one.
But what about you? Some of you have been in the church so long that, perhaps, you are sick of charismatic people “making things spiritual” that maybe just… aren’t. Or maybe you’re just bored, and going Creative would be something new for you. It’d spice up your spiritual life. But an even more important question that I believe needs to be asked to deal with this tension is simply: What about Jesus? He’s beyond uber spiritual, yet reached the lost very effectively. One time, He walked up to what some considered the worst of sinners, a tax collector, and His Master plan consisted of two words, “Follow me.” Doesn’t sound very creative to us, but dang, the dude got up! And Jesus had the whole constant miracles thing going on that drew the attention of people both lost and found. We sometimes believe we could do the same… but if we’re honest, our batting average on miracles isn’t very high… so we rely on creativity to grab people’s attention.
So how do you stay creative without losing your spiritual swag? How do you create a consistent lifestyle that is conducive for both the lost and found?
1.) Obey. We will opt out of what God told us to do because someone else thinks “it won’t work.” Never live your life by “what works”. Obey down to the last detail whether it’s against or with the current trend. Before you go do, God has to trust who you are. Be before you do.
2.) Use your gift. Everyone may not be “creative”, but everyone has been gifted with something. Whatever God-given gift you have, leverage that to reach people around you. And wherever you go to do that, make sure you repeat step 1. Doing both of these should create a healthy balance in your life whether in church or outside of it.
What do you think?