Equipping You to Minister to the Dechurched in Your Life

White Horse Inn

Sola Media

Grace, Scripture, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Spirituality, God, Knowledge, Christ, Gospel, Jesus, Faith, Belief, Religion, Christian, History, Theology, Bible, Reformation, Horton, Discipleship

4.8 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you go to church, do you know why you attend? Do you know why your friends and family have casually just stopped going to church? How can we talk about the necessity of the church in a way that is beautiful and life-giving, but goes beyond personal preference? In this episode, Michael Horton, Justin Holcomb, Walter Strickland, and Bob Hiller answer these questions and more as they discuss how Christians can reach out to their dechurched friends, family, and neighbors.

“When asked how willing they would be to go back to church, 51 percent said they are either somewhat willing or very willing—51 percent! Unsurprisingly, the reasons they would come back also represent a longing to belong. These dechurched evangelicals said they would come back if they made new friends (28%), if they move and want to make new friends (18%), if they became lonely and want to make new friends (20%), if their children want to go (16%), if their spouse wants to go (18%), if a friend invites them (17%), if there is a good pastor (18%), if they find a good community (17%), if they miss their church community (20%), or if they just find a church they like (14%). This group's high orthodoxy scores also inform other reasons they would come back: if they feel the distance from God (20%) or if God tells them to go back in some significant way (18%). The main takeaway here is that many dechurched evangelicals simply need a friend to invite them to church.” - The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back? by Jim Davis and Michael Graham, with Ryan P. Burge, p. 28.

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Featuring: Michael Horton, Bob Hiller, Walter Strickland, and Justin Holcomb

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think you're right.
0:04.0	One thing that I would say is that people, they think that they're going to find the
0:10.0	full holistic rest they need by just staying in bed and not going to church on Sunday.
0:16.1	But really there's an anxiety that underlies that need for rest that will only be settled with communion with the Savior.
0:26.0	And so if we're going to say, well, you know what, I'm going to live my life the same way my
0:29.4	none, neighbor lives and have my kids parallel all the busyness that their kids do, but then we're just going to add church on top of it. That's not going to work.
0:38.5	Right. So what we're saying is that, you know what, we need to find a way to understand where this sort of
0:46.0	spiritual emotional rest comes from in Christ and because there is activity that comes with it, we need to reassess our week to make sure
0:58.0	that there's space there for us to physically stop in order for us to go about the business of being a part of a church in a very integral way on a Sunday
1:07.0	morning. applying the riches of the Reformation to the modern church. This is Whitehorse Sin, a weekly roundtable discussion
1:26.4	about theology and culture. The author of Hebrews is very clear. Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not
1:45.4	neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another
1:50.0	and all the more as you see the day drawing near. I don't think there could be a more
1:55.5	appropriate text for the church to ruminate on and to act on in our time as we
2:01.6	have been discussing in this series we are witnessing the great
2:05.7	de-churching of our Western American culture that is we are witnessing the great
2:11.6	neglecting to meet together time.
2:13.8	It is the tragic habit of many people who used to attend church.
2:18.9	The reasons for this are Legion and the contemporary church is reeling trying to figure out how to turn the trend.
2:25.5	Too often, however, when we read this verse and contemplate these questions, we focus only
2:29.9	on the command to stay in church. I actually think we miss the spirit's exhortation to stir each other towards love and good works
2:37.6	to encourage one another. I can't help but think that such encouragement
	...

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