Saturday, November 11, 2006

McManus: Challenging The Church

I may or may not have mentioned that two of the most influential books I have read lately are Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis and Erwin McManus' The Barbarian Way. I've never been able to see McManus in person, but Perry Noble has...and he blogged about it here. McManus spoke recently at Willow Creek's A2 Conference. Here are my excerpts of Noble's excerpts. I think it is really good when churches are challenged to be what Christ intended.
  • How are we going to reach people across the world when we won’t even change our style of music to reach our own kids.
  • The opposite of a “come as you are” church is a “don’t come at all” church!
  • Most of the time the people who have not met Christ are way more honest than those who have met Christ.
  • Many times if you lead the attack for the cause of Christ…the spears thrown at you will come from behind you.
  • It’s a tragic thing when Christianity exists without Christ.
  • The churches that look perfect–they’re dead!
  • Many churches have an “intimate” feel–but not in a good way. it’s sort of like when you walk in on someone making out…it’s intimate, but you just feel like you’re not supposed to be there.
Feel free to pass these thoughts around. It's time we start taking the Christ's mission, our mission, seriously.