Everyday Church

It is so important for Christian leaders to mobilize followers of Jesus to build authentic relationships with people who are not following Jesus. In a post-Christian culture, people want to know if you are the real deal or not. Hypocritical Christianity, as always, will not cut it when it comes to advancing the kingdom of God. This is especially true in a society that is increasingly hostile toward Christianity.

I read a good book recently. In Everyday Church: Gospel Communities on Missions, authors Tim Chester and Steve Timmis point out that, "We need to do church and mission in the context of everyday life. We can no longer think of church as a meeting on a Sunday morning. We must think of church as a community of people who share life, ordinary life. And we cannot think of mission as an event that takes place in an ecclesiastical building. Of course, there will always be a role for special events, but the bedrock of mission will be ordinary life. Mission must be done primarily in the context of everyday life."

My goal as a pastor is to mobilize the church I lead to build meaningful relationships with all kinds of different people. We can't afford to live in a comfortable Christian bubble, spending most of our time with people who believe as we do. We must engage culture and intentionally build relationships across cultural boundaries and belief systems.