Bad Routines, Right Passion, New Gameplan

No, the title of this post has nothing to do with our current Sex Series at Oakleaf. What I'm talking about here is the struggle of getting believers to respond to a call of action.

I've been thinking/talking a lot about this recently and here's a taste of it:

In the South especially you have many many believers who have grown up in a church environment. They were "saved" (some genuine, some not) early in life and grew up attending church and hearing the Word and etc etc etc. Part of this environment was a sheltering. A dissociation from anything non-christian. You just didn't hang out with "those people." The church overused phrases like "they'll bring you down" and misused phrases like "unequally yoked."

So that's the Bad Routine part. Many of us grew up forming bad habits. We didn't hang around lost people. We didn't befriend them. We didn't learn how to build a genuine friendship with them. It was all too often a "us" vs. "them" mentality. Outreach always involved a "mission" through the church or an inner-city VBS, etc. It wasn't the day-to-day.

But then there's the Right Passion part. Here's what I mean: Being involved in this churchplant and being around ministry awhile, I meet tons of believers who grew up in that environment but now have a HUGE heart for the lost. They WANT to make a difference. They WANT to do want Jesus clearly did - hang out with the lost. Go into their homes. Visit their neighborhoods. Be genuine in motive. Share a life changing message.

The problem is many many MANY of them have a very difficult time making that transition. Habits are hard to break. It's not like you just wake up one day and all the uneasiness of being around your lost co-worker who brags about what they did over the weekend goes away. So, the right passion is there. The motivation to reach the unreached is there.

So, I think the challenge for everyone in ministry (especially church plants) is what new gameplan do we implement? What strategy is available? How do take a whole bunch of people who are ready to make an impact but not sure what to do...how do we move them from a burning passion to hands and feet action?

I think it will take more than a 3 day conference or 4 week series. We're talking about an alteration of everything we've grown accustom to.