I’ve previously written about believers being stuck in the Christian bubble, and I think I try hard not to get caught there. Here are some of those posts:
7 Evidences We Might be Stuck in the Christian Bubble
6 Reasons We Pastors Get Stuck in the Christian Bubble
This week, though, in the midst of the racial crisis we’ve seen, I’ve thought even more about how insulated I can be. Here are some additional evidences we might be caught in the bubble:
- We don’t really know the ethnic make-up of our ministry area. We might make guesses, but they’re not educated ones. We haven’t been burdened enough yet to find out that specific information.
- We don’t think much about how others experience life differently than we do. When it never even occurs to us that others face things we don’t face, we’re too insulated. Incarnational ministry means living among and learning from folks unlike us.
- We don’t push our churches to reach people outside our own ethnic group. Our demographic studies may show they’re in our community, but they’re not in our churches – and we’re somehow comfortable with that situation.
- We don’t know the status of other world faiths in our community. We don’t know how large the populations are. We don’t really know what they believe. We look past them to hang out with people who already believe what we believe.
- We work harder to avoid the influence of the world than we do to be an influence in the world. We protect ourselves more than we proclaim the gospel, seclude ourselves more than we shine the light, and hide from danger more than we hunger for righteousness.
- We tend to criticize those who push outside the bubble for being worldly and compromising. I fully understand we must make wise decisions and guard our witness, but believers who engage culture are often prayerfully taking risks of faith that others won’t take.
- We’ll give dollars to reach people we won’t otherwise give time and attention. It’s easier to give money, and it’s a lot harder to get outside our comfort zone to meet and know others. Sacrifice that costs us little discomfort, however, is not much sacrifice at all.
What are your thoughts? Are you in the bubble? If so, check out this post: 13 Ways to Get Outside the Christian Bubble.
Christian bubbles are good for churches that creates boundaries for a safe environment to worship. The problem is when several churches are in the same bubble competing for the same population. 18% of our country are un-churched born again Christians and 11% of our country are disconnected Catholics. Each group is looking for a particular need and conversation with church members before joining. Look within your own bubble to see what is actually happening. Let’s say you have a age range that goes to a particular ministry and after church goes out to eat as a group to one eating place, with a table top sign and a sign-up sheet your church has an outreach ministry. Advertise the different peoples ministry involvement so new people who are interested in a particular need can have a conversation. Then pick a particular Sunday and time to meet with the tabletop sign so new people can find you. Advertise in the local newspaper for free and radio station calendars. I use meetup.com as my platform that I advertise on, https://www.meetup.com/RTP-Christian-Singles/ and https://www.meetup.com/BelieversCommunityinNC/. Then go to churches within your bubble telling them of your success and you have open dates for them to advertise their own ministries. I have churches advertising for free existing ministries for grandparents, 33 to 50 years old, 22 to 35 year old, singles 40 plus, a singles community ministry on 2nd Sunday, 18 to 35 year old ministry, a zoom singles bible study from a church 268 miles away, a bowling event, singles eating out on the Friday nights, three social events on 4th Friday night, Thanksgiving events, Christmas events, Memorial weekend singles events, Singles Leadership training labor day weekend, coffee outreach 6:30 am to 9:30 am, children’s ministry on Wednesday night,hikes and an annual minor league baseball game. If I have a problem person on my meetup group, meetup.com will expel them from meetup. My average cost for the events I do personally is less than $5 per event. To advertise other churches events per event is less than a dollar per event.
Although they are all good, for me number 5 is the most challenging. While I will always cling to the old and tested Biblical truths I don’t want to get so comfortable in my beliefs that I justify not reaching out to other cultures, ethnic groups or people with different religious views. Thanks as always for the wonderful God-given insights you share.