lengthy messages

Read an article (http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/138205-three-things-your-people-hate-to-tell-you-about-your-preaching.html) talking about things people don't like about our preaching.  The one point several commenters focused on was peoples attention span not being long enough to handle more than 30 minutes (current teaching says 20 mins).  The following is what I posted in response to those comments.  


The normal attention span is shrinking due to our culture today.  Comparing a lecture to a movie or game is really missing the point - movies have a story line that weaves through many scene changes and games have constant changes and both are presented from many angles and different people.  A lecture or sermon are one person attempting to engage and hold an audience.  The greats can do this for hours, but the people do not leave with a single unifying point to grow and change on.  This "sitting in God's presence" stuff is again really missing it - God's presence is only at that building on Sundays? (this is a very dangerous concept - we cant be in Gods presence during the week in our everday lives)?  Is the Sunday service supposed to be where people get their discipleship?  Are we to teach our people that all they need to know can be learned on Sunday and that is why we must talk so long?  Recognizing the people we are trying to reach will not sit for a 45 minute message we take all of our messages and break them down into series.  Same information spread over several different messages.  Everyone leaves each message with one concrete challenge to work on.  We also train our people to be in the Word during the week as well as joining discipleship groups.  Rather than teaching the people Sunday's message is the one time to pack all of your learning in, we teach a way of life that includes constant learning.  These comments seem to be reflective of a common trend in churches of railing against the way people are rather than meeting them where they are.  Jesus should not have had to die for us, but it was needed and He did it.  People should be able to tune into a message from Gods word for more than 20 minutes, but many can't so maybe we should meet them where they are.  With training we could get them to focus longer, but that will only happen with those that are plugged in long enough - what about the new person?  Are we focused on the already connected or on reaching those that are lost?

Love God, Love Others, Disciple All

Love God, Love Others, Disciple All - this is our purpose statement at The Bridge.  We have been working through a sermon series about this.  Digging into the Love God portion the first week we discovered many times when a reference in the bible is made to loving God it is accompanied somehow with a statement about loving others as the indicator, evidence or activity of loving God.  To love God we must apparently love His people.  Love others is nearly always referenced as an activity of meeting the needs of someone, never as an emotion.  Discipleship is a process of training we go through in the discipline of following Christ.  We are called to disciple all in the great commission - that means all of us are to be about training others in the discipline of following Christ.  The great commission was not to go be disciples, rather to go disciple all people.  This was a final instruction from Jesus and applies to all His disciples.

Knowing these are the purposes for which we exist The Bridge is focused on applying these to all of our lives.  Although we offer worship services to express our love for God our primary outlet for loving God is in the action of loving others.  Loving others is an activity of meeting the needs of people - social, emotional, spiritual and physical needs.  Discipleship is done through our small groups, peer guide program and a constant challenge to grow by reading, listening and questioning.  I am excited about what God is doing in our lives and through us in Genesee county!