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Getting People Out of Their Seats and into God's Story |
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Entermission
Many Christians have a misguided concept of
the Gospel, according to Rob Wegner, pastor of life development at
Granger Community Church. “They think it’s about two things:
forgiveness of sin and a ticket to heaven.” Jack Magruder, Granger’s
director of life missions, adds that “once they’ve got their ticket,
people adopt a ‘bunker mentality’ and just wait it out,” leaving the
Great Commission to someone else. But Wegner and Magruder have an
absolute passion to change that. And, they have a plan.
It
starts with a new mindset. “This generation has a great opportunity –
but there needs to be a radical paradigm shift,” notes Wegner. That
shift includes seeing the Kingdom of God not just as the heaven we all
want to reach, but as encompassing our earthly existence. Wegner cites
a portion of the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,”
as an indication that God wants us to bring “up there, down here.”
This,
the two say, is the challenge of the century. And it may be less
formidable than we might think. “We have all the technological
advantages,” says Magruder, the tactician to Wegner’s visionary.
Compared to the church of two centuries past, today’s church has an
extraordinary edge, with worldwide communications, transportation,
networking – and millions of believers already.
But the right
mindset and the latest technology are not enough, without a cohesive
strategy. Tapped by organizations including Habitat for Humanity®, the
Bible League and the Purpose-Driven® movement to share their insights
on a 21st century model of ministry, Magruder and Wegner are now
offering their learning at their WiredChurches.com workshop,
EnterMission.
The model they’ve developed is designed to
facilitate the P.E.A.C.E. plan developed by Saddleback Church pastor
Rick Warren. [Plant a church; Equip servant leaders; Assist the poor;
Care for the sick; Educate the next generation] To that end, their
model includes five main components.
“Every generation of
churches moves the ball further down the field,” says Wegner, noting
that there are still 6,000 unreached people groups. But with the
technological advantages and resources we have, he adds, “this could be
the generation that makes it into the end zone.”
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