The key to outreach , he feels , is love – and one way to show love is to listen . We may overwhelm newcomers with effusive greetings . The way new spirits are welcomed in the spiritual world should guide us . Their first contact is with angels who offer pure love . with many detours . But this , he reflected , is the way the Lord often talked to people on earth – asking questions and getting them to think . The people came to feel that their questions and opinions mattered .
new church life : march / april 2017
The key to outreach , he feels , is love – and one way to show love is to listen . We may overwhelm newcomers with effusive greetings . The way new spirits are welcomed in the spiritual world should guide us . Their first contact is with angels who offer pure love . with many detours . But this , he reflected , is the way the Lord often talked to people on earth – asking questions and getting them to think . The people came to feel that their questions and opinions mattered .
He had launched the plant knowing the failure rate was high but with a lot of people telling him it would be great . He knew they would make mistakes and might fail , but had to try . The Lord , he said , loves when we trip and fall , and learn from the experience . And , “ We as a church need to get better at this ” – making the effort and learning how to do it better .
This is similar to the process of regeneration – learning how to respond to our failures . Our culture says failure is bad but it ’ s really good for us . You try something and if it doesn ’ t work you try something else .
The problem for the New Way Church is that it couldn ’ t get to the point of financial viability . There was a lot sadness and grieving when the decision was made to close down the church , but valuable lessons were learned . And for six years attendees were exposed to New Church doctrine and are forever changed by that .
As a pastor , he said , you don ’ t always know what effect you are having and it ’ s easy to get down , but you are dealing with people who want to make the world and their lives better and that makes a difference .
For many of the people he was serving their lives were a mess . So how do we establish church for those who can ’ t afford it ? Many people today generally distrust religion . They are looking for healing . He learned that it is important not to judge people and that we need to get better at disagreeing but still finding common ground . So we need to be thinking about the future of the Church – not just right now but 20 years from now .
The key to outreach , he feels , is love – and one way to show love is to listen . We may overwhelm newcomers with effusive greetings . The way new spirits are welcomed in the spiritual world should guide us . Their first contact is with angels who offer pure love .
It is scary and uncomfortable to go into a new church , not knowing what to expect . So we need to allay that fear with love from the Lord .
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