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Change the Method, Not the Message
This weekend we launched Behind the Curtain, a new series where we’re looking beyond the weekend experience to see how the Church is making a difference around the world. We felt so passionate about sharing where God has been leading us during this season that we pressed the pause button on the series we had planned to do next, Five Easy Steps to Wreck Your Life. Here’s a clip from Craig that captures the vision…
Craig went on in his message to talk about YouVersion, free messages, and Church Online. These are some of the ways that LifeChurch.tv is changing our methods, but not our message, to reach our culture.
What are some of the ways you think the Church needs to change to reach people today?
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I think we need to redeem technology for the propogation of the gospel, do what we do with excellence, befriend sinners, etc.
Continue to leverage technology, legitimately accept younger leaders, and create an overall culture in “The Church” that embraces diversity and doesn’t simply tolerate it!
I love so many things that lifechurch is doing. Youversion is an amazing website/app and j appreciate so much your willingness to push the envelope on innovation.
With that said however, I agree with Shane hipps who says that our methods communicate a message. We can’t divorce our message from it’s context. Delivering sermons in person, via video or Internet, etc each say something unique. It doesn’t mean it says something bad necessarily but we must be aware of the message our method delivers.
I think this is answering differently than th question was meaning, but I still think we need to become more and more unselfish…including me!
We simply need to GO where lost people are..the internet is an AMAZING place to be because lost people tend to live out “in secret” different lives on the net. I think the more sites we can find and be a part of where people can be confronted “in private”….the better!
Bobby, this series is exciting for me!
In H3O Church, our vision is “to reach who nobody else is reaching and dare them to follow Christ!”
Yesterday, we had our first public service in our new location. Nobody new showed up. Not one soul. So we’re going to review what we did this weekend and pray that God shows us what must we change in order to reach this people.
Can’t wait to see Craig’s message about this!
:)
Technology is key as Facebook and Twitter have worked great for us, just yesterday a lady asked about the church because of a post by a friend.
I like hearing about the tech stuff and seeing how lifechurch.tv is really using technology to spread a message of hope.
I think one thing that we (including myself) need to do is be more intentional about our life and our conversations. For a long time I have ascribed to the idea that if I live like Jesus people will notice and ask me why I live like that then they will become a Christian. This is a flawed way of thinking and really a cop-out for me to not have to share the message of grace and salvation. I heard a minister say yesterday that all you have to do is be a good person and people will notice and want to follow your God. I don’t think this is working.
I and we need to get back to living like Jesus but also having conversations with others about Christ.
I’m a Lifer’ and the message this last weekend was inspiring! I’ve been involved a bit with Church OnLine and I have renewed my commitment to that mission field.
This is the kind of message that I will send my friends to so they will understand why I am a Partner at LC.
One area I’d love for the NOW generation, the online, MP3 generation X take back is television. We still got some old fashion, old thinking Televised church leaders with huge TV audiences… So, yes, leverage technology, promote diversity everywhere but also not forgot where most people are today too.
Be willing to minister to people where they are, both physically (as in location) and spiritually (where they are on the journey of faith). The gospel message does not focus on come & hear but go and tell. We need to be willing to focus as much or more on investing in the person as we are the ministries to reach that person.
We really need to find some way to stop the segregation of the “left” and the “right” of churches over non-core issues. It seems that every blog you read wants to make two sides out of everything and say that the other isn’t doing it right. We really gotta stop and have a unified front based on the core principles of our faith. When the church comes together and stops the quarreling, the world will see the difference and that will be true relevance.
LifeChurch.tv is on the cutting edge and needs to continue to pursue that kind of exellence. As a partner I am proud to call LifeChurch.tv “my church”. We can never rest on our laurels and stop innovating and working together. Things that don’t move become stagnant, a “Dead Sea”. Like Pastor Craig said, the message is precious and should not change as fads change, but the methods can change. I remember “party lines” on phones growing up which was like a blog in the old days, now we have email, Facebook and hundreds of other social means to commmunicate. In the future, many things will change and be different but the word of God is steadfast and eternal and will always be there to be found. GOD IS GOOD!
Where people are, that’s where they need to be reached.
How about we try obeying the scriptures and truly living like Christ? Loving our neighbor, being a living sacrifice, being filled with the Spirit so that we exhibit supernatural love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, etc.
It’s far too easy to try and share a message and use fancy technology and clever methods to share a message - without actually being transformed yourself.
I believe that if we focus on making disciples who are very much like Christ (something we totally are not accomplishing) - we would see explosive growth & the Kingdom truly advance. Be careful, brothers and sisters!
I heard a guy say recently that “the medium is the message” He referenced the incarnation, and how Jesus is the prime example of this. I’m not sure what I think about that idea… but there does seem to be at least some overlap between the medium and the message.
If a picture has the right frame you don’t notice the frame. The purpose of the frame is to call attention to the picture, not itself.
If the medium is the message you have the wrong medium. The purpose of the medium is to call attention to the message, not itself.
Another point. These discussions are not intended to imply that the topic being discussed is all there is to the Christian life. Of course we must live like Christ and disciple others to do so as well. Tools like the one under discussion provide additional opportunities to do so.
Problem, the message from Jesus was always “The Kingdom of God”. Yes, the only way to discover this is through the teachings and life of Jesus. But when we proclaim Jesus and not his message, then people think you are in a cult. In fact, it seems that Christianity is so far off base from Jesus’ way, truth and life, that it has become a dead thing.
Read Pagan Christianity by George Barna and Frank Viola.
How can I watch the COMPLETE video on “The Churches Message Never Changes” or “Change the Method, Not the Message” by Craig. This only shows a little over 3 1/2 minutes of it. Sounds very interesting…would like to watch the rest of it. Thanks.
Sue, you can go here to see the full message: http://www.lifechurch.tv/message-archive/watch/behind-the-curtain/1
The Apostle Paul said, “I became all things to all people, so that I might win some to Christ.” We as the church have to embrace different ways to reach people for Jesus. So if someone or a group of people have a creative way to do that, we the church need to encourage them to pull the trigger and make it happen.
Is there risk doing something someone has never done, sure, but the greater risk is not doing something God has put on our heart and called us to do. My dad had a saying, “Let’s break it and see if we can make it better.” I believe that is the attitude the church must have win it comes to bringing people into a relationship with Jesus.
I agree that the church should use different and creative methods in sharing the Gospel with others, but not at the expense of watering the Truth! I think the church is too concerned about numbers that it has strayed from the truth. The church doesn’t want to offend people, so it doesn’t call people out on their sin. Jesus did, and it was offensive because people hated Him. People should not only believe in Christ, but they must truly repent. That method of “tough love” may not bring in tons of people into the church, but it will definitely make more genuine disciples of Christ.