One In Jesus

Now we get to the good stuff … what churches do wrong. I mean, this is the area where we can learn the most about how to do better.

A Lack of Sensitivity to Nonreligious People

Mehta found many of the things said in church about nonreligious people offensive. He tries to live morally. He is concerned about other people. He certainly doesn’t think of himself as evil.

Some churches read passages that refer to those outside Israel or the church as the enemies of God. Comments were made about the unchurched that assumed them to be immoral. The common assumption was that those outside of Christ are bad people. Continue reading →

Energy level and passion

Mehta noticed that churches vary greatly in energy and passion.

The churches I enjoyed the most had a buzz of excitement that was noticeable from the moment I walked in the door. …

The positive feeling I picked up came from other churchgoers. It stands out when you are around people who look forward to coming to church, people who are glad to see one another. That vitality brushed off on me.

Mehta notes that architecture and technology aren’t the source of this enthusiasm. He found it in both plain and beautiful buildings. In particular, he considers community service as helping to generate this kind of enthusiasm. Continue reading →

I’m not going to go over Mehta’s impressions of the individual churches. It’s great material, but it’s best to just buy and read the book. Rather, I’m skipping way over toward the end where he summarizes his impressions. He begins with the positives.

Top notch preachers

He begins by noting how much he enjoyed listening to the better preachers — and how much he disliked some of the preachers for the smaller churches. He correctly observes that big churches usually have better speakers.

However, he also enjoyed the house church he visited, as the lesson was well taught and he could informally interact with the teacher. He thinks it’s critical that visitors be able to interact with the speaker. Continue reading →