If the church could learn this…

// July 14th, 2009 // OUT LOUD THOUGHTS

from the movie: The Big Kahuna

Phil Cooper: It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling Jesus or Buddha or civil rights or ‘How to Make Money in Real Estate With No Money Down.’ That doesn’t make you a human being; it makes you a marketing rep. If you want to talk to somebody honestly, as a human being, ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are – just to find out, for no other reason. Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it’s not a conversation anymore; it’s a pitch. And you’re not a human being; you’re a marketing rep.

Why we don’t have community in the Church/why it’s easier to form community outside it:

  • We don’t care enough to begin to ask any of these questions.
  • We don’t even exist as a community in the first place.
  • When was the last time you made a friend at an event?
  • Church is a bounded set that defines who is and who is not a part by more definitions than just faith.
  • There is no truly neutral  ground at church.
  • We have no relationship/friendship with the community.
  • How can you create a community when you’re strategy is to pull people out of the only community that they know and make them a part of the community.  Your one and only connect to the community was spayed and neutered.

And various other reasons & rants.

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