How to Make Church Accessible to Anyone

Let’s talk night number three. I think it’s number three. I’m losing my mind. It’s rebuilding mid-week and Bible talk. So we talked earlier in our episodes about that. The goal of Let’s Talk Night is replaced Bible Talk and midweek for some of you who are younger, you don’t even remember Bible talk, which, you know, I don’t know. That doesn’t matter. But for a lot of us, midweek has been really, really hard, really, really hard. And, uh, and, and we’ve, we’ve, uh, we’ve gone to midweek out of our commitment to Jesus Christ, out of our, not out of our hunger to be there and for the fellowship, but sometimes at least the feedback I’ve gotten, sometimes the delightful events that they should have been didn’t occur. Now, one of the things that’s important to understand, though, is that now let’s talk nights need to be much more geared toward others. churches get in trouble. And we talked about this in the first episode. If you didn’t listen to it yet, you can go back and listen to that again. You can listen to these a couple of weeks in a row if you want, or listen to them on your own, they’ll always be available. But we talked about the fact that we want to make church accessible. But one of the reasons is because our purpose, part of our purpose, part of the four principles that we’ve talked about is evangelizing, uh, doing good, evangelizing good, loving God, evangelizing God. I think evangelism gets a bad name. The Bible teaches very clear. Jesus is a friend of tax collectors and sinners. In fact, Jesus spent very little time in meetings, organizing. He spent his time initiating and spending time with people. And what I’ve noticed is sometimes our our meetings and our times together become times to sort of, I’ve heard a million. That’s an exaggeration. Maybe a million college students and teenagers go, yeah, we’re getting together again because we got to work on our relationships in my last ten years of life, I have never seen more discussion about. We as Christians are meeting to work on our relationships. I actually think, and I’m sure some people will hate on me about this, but that’s fine. I actually think sometimes we say we want to work on relationships because we don’t want to reach out to others, and we want to keep everything very insular in order to rebuild from midweek and Bible talk and make a real Let’s Talk night. We’ve got to get into who’s out there that would love to be part of all the good we have, but don’t feel like it’s accessible. Let’s take a look at some people and I’m going to hit each one of them. And then I want you guys to comment on what you’re thinking. I’m not going to give you any hint. The first group, the first the first category is the religious Pharisee. In John three one through two it says, now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. This is one of the first times I ever saw inside the Bible was a guy taught this. And then he read this passage and made a point. He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know that you’re a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him. And the guy leading my little discussion said, why did Jesus go at night? And I was like, I was fairly young Christians like, whoa, I never saw an insight like that. How did he see that? How did he even know he went, oh my gosh. Well, Nicodemus was a Pharisee, an extremely religious man, a member of the establishment religion. And he came to Jesus at night because he didn’t want to go in the day and have everybody see him under the cover of darkness so others would not know and said, let’s talk. The Pharisee initiated. Jesus said, let’s go. Why did he initiate with Jesus? Because Jesus made himself accessible to someone completely different from him. Yes, they were Jewish, but Jesus was radical. He was turning everything on his face. And yet he was accessible enough that this Pharisee was willing to come to him. And so the question I have for what do you think about rebuilding midweek and Bible talk so that people who maybe believe something different than us can feel like it’s accessible to have a spiritual conversation and join us. What do you think? One of my fondest memories when, you know, just getting to know people and talk to people, it’s, you know, it was like a we had a Bible talk and this guy had come and he said something that was incredibly random. But what I loved about it, he just, uh, he didn’t agree with what I was talking about. I was leading the Bible talk and he’s like, there’s nothing wrong with, you know, I want to go into all the details of what he said, but that actually created an environment where because I didn’t freak out and I’m like, hey, man, I like it. Let’s go. Everyone actually started talking. So I think it’s creating an environment where people just get to be themselves and talk, oh, I like that. Following a bunch of rules and the whole group just kind of got energized as we just talked. And I didn’t say, oh, I’m just saying that at church. I’m distracted. What did this person ask you? Oh, well, I don’t even want to know that. I don’t the way Martin’s face looks. I don’t want to know about that. Let’s not get into that. Let’s not. That’s the question. You never you. That’s like a person who’s never been to the hood who says, let’s go for a walk down that alley. That’s just stupid. What’s that? What’s down there? It’s like you don’t need to know what’s down that alley. You just need to know that alley is dark, and this neighborhood is dangerous, you know? Not that every neighborhood in the hood is dangerous, but you get what I’m talking about. So? So I want you to think about this. Let me let me give you a little history right here. So the Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ Christian Church, uh, the, the probably the key guys who in the eighteen hundreds got that rolling were two guys, Alexander Campbell and Barton. Uh, I think Barton W Stone, I believe was his name. Now, one of the things about Alexander Campbell is very interesting. He’s a super intellectual guy. Super smart guy. But in that day, and it was somewhat culture of the eighteen hundreds in America. But in that day, a lot of things were done through debate. And so they debated a lot. And I think one of the ways that you make things accessible is you don’t take the position of everybody who comes in that believes something different than me. I need to argue with, and I need to prove wrong. Part of our heritage, the reason I bring up Alexander Campbell and Barton Song I’m not. These are great guys who changed the world in their time, but part of our heritage and a lot of young people don’t even know that is a debate, an argument culture. And so the I was taught very early on, if someone doesn’t believe it, then you need to make the argument in your Bible discussion to show them they’re wrong. And that way you can save them from their error. Jesus actually is accessible enough that the Pharisee isn’t worried that he’s going to be told he’s wrong. The Pharisee goes, this guy’s throwing down changing lives. That was the key. Jesus was not walking around debating and arguing. He was walking around changing lives. Lepers had clean skin without acne cosmetics, you know what I’m saying? Blind people started seeing women got respected. You know, the racial divide between Samaritans and Jews fell apart because Jesus just talked to them. All these things happen. And the Pharisee came not for an argument, but he came for an education. Let’s go to our next person, a woman entrepreneur. Woo, a woman entrepreneur. I was really excited about this. I was reading, studying. I was really excited. Acts sixteen thirteen on the Sabbath, we went outside the city gate to the river where we expected to find a place of prayer. So it’s all men and they go out to pray, which is very spiritual thing to do. Right? We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. Now I’ll tell you right now, life changing, non-traditional, non-denominational in my old days, maybe you can relate. If I went out to pray, I’d be like, I can’t talk to anybody. I’m praying that’s what I do because I’m being spiritual. They went out to find a place of prayer, and as soon as they saw the ladies, they were like, hey, let’s talk to him. We sat down and began to speak to the women who gathered there. One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. So they had a schedule. They had a spiritual plan, and they changed it all and said, let’s talk. And in that day, women were considered less. They were considered essentially in many ways. I don’t think it’s too strong to say irrelevant. Man was everything. And so for these men to stop what they were doing and talk to the woman, and then also she was an entrepreneur. This woman was making bank. When you’re doing purple cloth, that’s serious. Dollar. Dollar bill man. That’s what she had. And so they were talking to an entrepreneur. So they went to they had they had a couple of things going on here. She was a woman. And, you know, and if you look in John four, they even question when Jesus talked to a woman. Yeah. Why are you talking to that woman? So she was a woman. She was an entrepreneur. She didn’t need them. If anything, they needed her money because the apostles were running low on cash almost all the time. Number three, she had other women with her. And if we were to assume a little bit, those women work for her. Yes. Yeah. Number four, if you go on and read later, she had her own household. Usually it was the man’s household. She had the house, she had the household and said, hey, after she ended up becoming a Christian, she said, hey, why don’t you come over to my house? So this lady was was not needy. And they walked in and had all those four differences. And they started a conversation that changed her life. What can we learn from the woman entrepreneur interaction? Michelle? What can you teach? What can you tell us even from a woman’s point of view, uh, about that? I was actually thinking of like, is the conversation attractive to other people, because the thing I was thinking about when I first came out and I came out actually with a group, my posse, I’m like, you girls come in clumps. So it’s funny that it shows that because I’m like, girls, we come in packs. So I came with two of my sisters and my best friend Jamie. And I remember they would make at the time I called them Bible jokes because they would refer to a scripture and they’d all be laughing. And I’m like, what’s so funny? You know, like, don’t be a Martha. I’m like, who’s Martha? Like, and I remember talking to my friend and he’s like, Bible jokes. And now, I mean, sadly, now I tell Bible jokes. Um, so I’m guilty. I’m guilty of it. But I think we’re not always thinking about our conversations. And are they attractive to other people? Do people know what we’re talking about? When you’re throwing out the word partner, when you’re throwing out, you know, the Bible? Oh, I hate that jokes. Um, when you talk about your group in front of all your friends, is that attractive? Oh my gosh. And why am I not on it? Yes. I think there are so many little Awkward. You know, like there’s so many little things that we do in our conversations and they’re not attractive to other people. And you’re like, you feel excluded as part of it, I think because you’re like, I’m not in on what they’re talking about. Brilliant. Let’s just go to intellectuals now. Let’s just jump to intellectuals while Paul was waiting for them in Athens. And if you know your classical history a little bit, you know that Athens was placed where some serious minds were at work. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day, with those who happen to be there. Acts seventeen, sixteen and seventeen. Athens was known for brilliant people, thinkers and intellectuals, people who spent their days creating new ideas in debate and destroying opposing arguments. Despite all this, Paul was not intimidated and chose instead to say, let’s talk. What did we learn about this in. Regarding intellectuals, Martin told me. He’s an intellectual. So. Martin. Oh, you know, I think I love how it says, you know, he was not intimidated. I think from my experience, at least, you know, I was around a brilliant guy, you know, uh, getting his PhD in robotics and everyone, no matter how smart and intelligent they are, people have needs. And when you look beyond the outside, you actually get to the heart of the issue. See, I consider him a very good friend, and he was even asking me for advice about what to do with her career. I’m like, why are you asking me? I don’t know anything about robotics, but why wait? Wait. Now I got to ask you a question. Yes. So do you know about robotics? Now? I know a little bit. Oh, did you get your robotics magazine? I don’t have the magazine. Oh, it’s everybody at House church listening right now. Mark Martin was very talkative. Mark was very talkative right there. Okay. I love what you’re saying and I agree with you. People have the needs notice and I don’t want you to lose that. But notice what Paul does right here. It says, he reasoned in the synagogue. So he knew he was dealing with intellectual guys. He got on their level and he used logical reasoning to talk to them. He wasn’t emotional. He wasn’t trying to use his charisma. He was like, okay, you want to go intellectual? I can go intellectual. First Corinthians nine, you become all things to all people. And not only did he talk to him there, he went into the marketplace. That’s the business center. That’s Wall Street. He said, I can go there. I actually agree with you. They have the needs, but I don’t think they will hear what you have to say until you can speak to them in their language. When I moved to Silicon Valley, I devoted myself to understanding the digital world, and I know you like to learn about a bunch of different stuff. And so I think that’s something you do do, but you don’t. All that didn’t sound good. Do do. That sounded terrible. But That’s a whole other discussion and not very intellectual. That was very intellectual. There’s some intellectual there, but I’m not. You guys don’t understand it. You don’t understand it, you don’t understand it. But I think it’s important for us to always ask ourselves the question, am I going to become the stereotypical religious person who Pooh poohs, the intellectual person who believes in evolution, who disregards the intellectual person who believes in abortion, who disregards the intellectual person who thinks that God is a fantasy, who, as you talked about Martin, come and be themselves without us feeling insulted or like we’ve got to prove them wrong. I think part of a culture of tradition and denominational, sort of handed down beliefs and stifling culture is to not be secure enough in what we believe and knowledgeable enough. So I think you got to read robotics magazines. You got to get on there and learn about robotics and AI and then be able to say, tell me about your business. I want to learn about your business. I heard this about robotics. Can you explain that to me? That’s what I think. I think every Christian ought to become that. Go ahead, Jeanette, get in there. And yeah, I didn’t get I want to get Martin a chance to explain how he does know all about robotics in a second. Yeah. He he needs a rebuttal. Is that what it’s called? I actually really like doing this because I don’t know many things, but when I meet people, uh, that are getting their PhDs or like people that like, what’s that called anime? Um, not my thing, but I’m like, tell me about it. What? What is this? I like finding out what they’re passionate about or what they like. And I do try to like get into it a little bit just to understand. But do you, do you think Jeanette or even Christian or Martin can jump in here? Do you think sometimes we’re not very curious as Christians? Oh, absolutely. We’re like, do you want to love God? No. Next. Martin. Martin. Martin! Get in. Get in there and tell me how you invented robotics. And. And you were trying to be humble. You were trying. You know, I was being humble. I know you wouldn’t understand me if I explained it. No, no, because you studied business, right? You did study business, I switched, I went from business to history. I started I started with business. Oh well, hey, now I like history. Alright, so you were thinking about law school. I was oh boy, oh boy, I was, I was you make a good lawyer. I told you you were an intellectual. But what are you thinking? You got some. You got some good examples. I know of doing this because I’ve talked to you a lot before where you have done it. You know what? Uh, it’s a, it’s a good reminder because even your comment about how we can not be curious as Christians, I feel convicted and challenged because I have not been that curious about AI and all the you know, I settled with asking them questions versus go get a magazine and get into his world. So that’s, you know, I think that’s a challenge for me and a challenge for a lot of people where we don’t have the curiosity needed and necessary to get into somebody’s world and understand their world and what they’re going through and find a way to actually, because this is always something you can connect. There’s, there’s ways to connect the dots between I love what they’re going through, their passion, their hobbies, Christianity. I’m like, so that’s a missed opportunity. No, it’s not a missed opportunity because I’m going to go back and do that work. I’m going to go back and you’re going to you’re going to be you’re smart, you’re a smart guy. You’re going to get so good. You’re going to come back and say, I’m now working for his company. Um, the religious, the religious Pharisee, a woman entrepreneur, the intellectuals. Let’s talk night is an opportunity. Acts twenty seven to have an extended dialogue not just with people who believe. Check out acts twenty, verse seven and the voice and extended dialogue, not just with those who believe, but conversations with people who don’t believe. You know, creating a house church culture like we just described, where I like what Martin said, where we get into someone else’s world instead of just telling them, come into our world. Seems like to me, that’s what Jesus did all the time. I hope you’re enjoying your let’s Talk nights. And they’re getting better and better and better. Enjoy the discussion today about how would you do if one of these people walked into your group and how comfortable would they be? Or would you just argue them to death? Oh, no. See you next week.