More Questions Than Answers

Pastor Dick Lehman managed to raise more questions than answers at Tuesday's vision meeting. Below are my condensed notes from the thoughts he shared. I invite you to join the staff in pondering the points below.

1. People Matter to God

• Do you really believe this statement?

2. People Are Lost

• Are you concerned that they are lost?

• Are you willing to give a lost person directions?

3. People Need Christ

4. People Need Answers to their Questions and Objections

• Are you equipped with enough truth and grace to answer these questions and objections?

5. People Need Community

• Does the community that people belong to pull them towards or away from God?

• Are you part of a community that includes non-believers and draws them closer to God?

6. People Need Experience

• People base their belief on their experience with God and Christians

• Are you providing people with experiences in your daily life that would draw them closer to God?

7. People Need Relevance

• People need to know that Christianity is relevant and applies to their lives.

• Does your life demonstrate that Christianity is life transforming?

8. Who is going to move?

• There are so many barriers between people outside of the faith and those in the faith that we can no longer expect people to seek or be attracted to church
• So, are you going out into the world and engaging the culture?

**Note: Important Principles when engaging the culture:

• It involves relationships
• It takes conversations
• It is best done as a team effort
  

Pastor Lehman's thoughts originated with a presentation by Mark Mittleberg entitled "Communicating Your Faith in a Secular Word." You can listen to this presentation by going to the Xenos Summer Institute website , scrolling down to the 2008 conference listings.