| A Shift is Happening Now! |
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| Written by Doug Addison | |
| Friday, 13 January 2006 | |
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It seems that there has been a recent shift in the depth and intensity of the experiences we are having with people as we do creative new evangelistic outreaches. I have been receiving reports that many people are beginning to respond to wanting to know Jesus more personally. At an outreach in Canada at a New Age fair a few weeks ago, 89 out of 90 people wanted to know God as their Father and Jesus as their friend. Last month, a Shaman and a Psychic responded to wanting to know Jesus personally at an outreach in Southern California. We are finding that these spiritual seekers are not responding to the traditional method of praying the sinner’s prayer of salvation. But, if you ask them if they want to know the God who created them as their Father or if they want to be a follower of Jesus, they readily agree. Unfortunately, most all of the people that we are encountering who are open to Jesus are not open or willing to going to a Christian church. When I tell these stories to church leaders they all ask me, “Are they getting into a church?” My answer is no, not yet. We are dealing with a group of people today who need God but are not impressed with the lukewarm program-oriented Christianity that is the norm in the majority of churches they visit. People are longing for the real power of God and a real relationship-based community, much like the one described in the book of Acts. We have found that our evangelistic methods have long been outdated and that people are now responding to more organic creative ways that demonstrate God’s love and power more relevantly. I feel that we have developed a “new wineskin” for evangelism, but the people we are reaching don’t like the old wine. It should not surprise us then that to truly reach these spiritual seekers we will need to revamp church to allow them to experience God. We are beginning to experiment with new ways of drawing people into a deeper life-changing relationship with Jesus. I will be writing more about this in future releases. For now, look around and see if people around you are more open to God than they were before. I believe we are sitting on a great revival and God is waiting for us to look up and see that the fields are ripe for harvest! Copyright 2005 Doug Addison |