Outside: Why Does the Church Want Me?

It is true that many people feel like outsiders to Church. Some have been alienated by a congregation or an individual, turned off by a message or theology, or simply found it irrelevant to life or lifestyle.
Sound familiar? Is it true of your family, your friends, you?
This September at COFS Pastor Chris Nunley will address 3 critical life-questions most people have that the Church can answer.
No one has to be left...Outside.


It’s Safer Outside (or Why Does the Church Want Me?)
The Week of September 20, 2009
One of the reasons people stay Outside the church is because they are afraid. It's not that it is safer outside, but it just doesn't seem safe inside. It's as if we are wanting something, money, time, energy, etc. The church might be seen like a vulture, just waiting for prey. But that's not the Church at all (or not how it's supposed to be.) We want them so that we can know them and they us and all of us know God more completely. We need each other!

Questions to Ponder:
Why do people not go to Church?
What are people are afraid of?
How has the church left people outside? (So that it appears safer there?)

What do people say about Church in general? About COFS?
What has the church done (or is now doing) that makes people feel unwelcome?

We’ve talked about Radical Hospitality, but the real question is, “Why?”

*Matthew 20:20-28 (Mk 10:35-45)
*John 13:1-17
Matthew 28:19-20
Matthew 9:9-13
*Romans 15:1-9a
Acts 1:1-11
Matthew 25:31-46
*Hebrews 13:1-3
Genesis 18:1-8
1 Corinthians 9:19-27

Read these passages * and ask:
What does this passage say to the church today?
What implications does this have if we took it seriously?
How do we go about making changes to COFS? to the Kingdom?
How do we go about making changes to our attitudes as Christians?
How do we get out of the me/them thinking.