This morning at Eastbrook, Marc made a provocative statement that I have been thinking about all day.
He said that the church today in America has neglected two topics in our practice: evangelism and prayer.
What do you think?
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Matthew Erickson 
I agree but I would add a third topic: sin.
Thanks for the comment and the visit, Timothy.
I suppose that if we are not putting evangelism into practice then we may not be giving good attention to sin as well.
I see that churches today are too legalistic to the point where it takes over and they simply don’t have time to encourage evangelism and prayer because they are too busy trying to follow their own churches laws and rules. Simple as that. I was told not to go to a bible study with other women that I had attended because they were not of our denomination. How can a PASTOR tell someone NOT to get into their bible simply because the person sitting next to me may have been catholic? That is why I say they are too legalistic and spend too much time trying to preserve their laws and traditions that there is no time for anything else but preaching at people.
If I were to suggest the poorest competencies of Western Christianity, that would be my top two. Without prior generations modeling either well, we’re at big disadvantage trying to re-write our future.
Good point, Brian. I am eager to see us begin to re-access our historic past of prayer and evangelism in order to re-fashion it for the contemporary and future eras. This is a pressing need for the church today.
Matt –
Point me to an old post, and I’m bound to get distracted clicking on other old posts. 🙂 I agree with Timothy about sin – but to clarify: our sin, my sin. It is so much easier for churches to point to the sins of those outside of their four walls, even to the extreme that Tracy mentioned, than it is to talk about the sin in our own lives.
I believe that one of the main reasons we pray is to help us line up with God’s will – which includes becoming more aware of our own sin; and as we are more aware of our own sin and continue to repent and pray, we can become more loving to those who are not yet our Sisters and Brothers around us, making our evangelism more effective. I believe an emphasis on the three must all be connected.
Patricia, thanks for responding to this ‘old post’! I agree that we can easily devolve into pointing out others’ sins without attending to our own. An awareness of sin in general – as well as mine in particular – helps us to truly pray and humbly share our faith as well.
1 thing I struggle with…..”caring”. Truly searching inwardly to question my caring for others.
That is the root reason. Jesus wept, because Jesus truly cared.
It is also why we cannot get people over the hang-ups of the evangelism hump.
It is also why we struggle at plugging in new comers.
It is also a root issue with our prayer life.
We simply do not truly care. It’s that blunt, it’s that true. We find other things to do than to care.
The mark of authencity and the voice I’m given by High Schoolers today is directly related as they read me if I really “care” about them. It is a trust and vulnerability check.