A full frontal attack...

I recently went to the local restaurant/bar in our community in the middle of the afternoon with our SMP vicar for a drink and to study the Word. After a week of visits, internal workings, meetings, etc, we decided to try to go where the "people" were.

After three and a half years in our community, it is a struggle at times to know where people hang out. Our village is a bedroom community of Milwaukee and often people are driving all day and end up just sleeping and working on their homes on the weekend. So where does a church go to be among the people and be witnesses? The answer: the local bar.

A confessional pastor I respect once said, "The church needs to be a on full frontal attack of the neighborhood in which it lives (schools, gas stations, restaurants, and bars). Until then, the church will always be outsiders." This is very true in our post-church culture. Often the church hangs out in the church building to be religious and discuss God, but once in the culture that surounds them, God/Jesus/Faith/Hope is strikingly quiet.

This is where we all need to realize as baptized children of Christ, we are the frontline of God's army. We are to be in the midst of our neighborhoods, restaurants, and bars. Not to indulge in the sins of gluttony, immorality, or language. But living in the world as Christ was with sinners.

We pray for many opportunities to be among the people in our community and for all churches to be on a full frontal attack.