Why have the Anabaptists FAILED at Reaching the Masses

[ken_sylvania]

Why are you wasting your time posting anonymously on a web forum instead of getting into your vehicle, driving an hour into the city, and actually DOING something about the problem?

I do it every day. Join me.

Where and when?

[Josh]

I have posted examples over and over of what my church is doing to try to reach cities: From New York to LA, Detroit down to Houston... I admit we don't have something in Dallas (yet).

If that upsets someone, go start your own church there. When I have been in Dallas for business, I have been blessed to find good fellowship a short drive away.

[mrbilliam]

Why are you wasting your time posting anonymously on a web forum instead of getting into your vehicle, driving an hour into the city, and actually DOING something about the problem?

I do it every day. Join me.

Ok, tell us then - what do you do?

I've already pointed out that for an example of a city like Dallas, there is a conservative Anabaptist congregation comfortably close by. It would be basically impossible to set up a normal conservative Anabaptist congregation closer into the city since most of us don't make the kind of high salaries required to live in a place like that.

Telling you what I do is not Mennonite (and you know it). Because then it's boasting.
Let's just say every day I'm telling people about Jesus in a major city purposely. This isn't in conjunction with monetary pay.

Already like you said...
Already like I said. The "nearby churches" to most major cities are an hour away in the rural countryside.

[mrbilliam]

Why are you wasting your time posting anonymously on a web forum instead of getting into your vehicle, driving an hour into the city, and actually DOING something about the problem?

I do it every day. Join me.

Yeah, and people have asked what you’re doing and ask what you would suggest people actually do and you’ve just stuck with sweeping generic condemnations.
As for the whole going overseas to plant a mission and not doing it locally… I agree with you…

First churches need to get into cities. Make a presence known. Set up seminars. Invite the communities. Set up food distros. Set up help seminars. Reach out to single mothers. Set up Biblically moral teaching venues covering topics like movies, music, family life, etc. Invite, invite, invite.

Pass out tracts. Go to malls with shirts that say "Ask me about Jesus". Tell people "smile Jesus loves you", and see if it opens dialog. Go to parks with meals with a sign that says "join us for a FREE meal and fellowship". Setup volleyball at parks and invite locals to join. Have people on hand with good theological apologetics especially for Calvinistic views and Catholic views.

I love that you agree. I'd love to see us Anabaptists with 100+ churches in every major city. That would be incredible!

[mrbilliam]

Why are you wasting your time posting anonymously on a web forum instead of getting into your vehicle, driving an hour into the city, and actually DOING something about the problem?

Exactly.

For every person actively involved in serving, there are hundreds of people finding something wrong to complain about online. And from what I've seen, they rarely understand what they are criticizing all that well - if they did, they might find other things to criticize and improve. Most ministries see these things and keep trying to address them.

Look at churchindex.org. Look at every major city in America. It's really bad. What I'm speaking is the truth, and it's a hard truth, and most people don't like the truth. Perhaps I'm even sort of being a "jerk" about how it's presented.... But it's true.

There are millions of unreached ENGLISH SPEAKING AMERICANS in our own back yards.

[Josh]

First churches need to get into cities. Make a presence known. Set up seminars. Invite the communities. Set up food distros. Set up help seminars. Reach out to single mothers. Set up Biblically moral teaching venues covering topics like movies, music, family life, etc. Invite, invite, invite.

Pass out tracts. Go to malls with shirts that say "Ask me about Jesus". Tell people "smile Jesus loves you", and see if it opens dialog. Go to parks with meals with a sign that says "join us for a FREE meal and fellowship". Setup volleyball at parks and invite locals to join. Have people on hand with good theological apologetics especially for Calvinistic views and Catholic views.

I love that you agree. I'd love to see us Anabaptists with 100+ churches in every major city. That would be incredible!

Nobody's stopping you from doing the above.

I personally find T-shirts for evangelism to be beyond ridiculous.

I would not be remotely focused on trying to "convert" people with Calvinistic or Catholic views. Spending time debating dogma is, generally speaking, not useful.

[Soloist]

First churches need to get into cities. Make a presence known. Set up seminars. Invite the communities. Set up food distros. Set up help seminars. Reach out to single mothers. Set up Biblically moral teaching venues covering topics like movies, music, family life, etc. Invite, invite, invite.

We don’t do seminars. What sort of seminars would we do anyway? What we tend to do is revival meetings and Bible teaching meetings. If we were to go and start inviting people as you suggest in the middle of the city and actually have a church in the middle of the city for them to go to, how many do you think would actually come? Then they walk in see how we dress here that our biblically moral teachings covering topics such as movies and music and find out that we teach movies are wrong and you shouldn’t watch any, and the music should not use the instrument and be Christian only? Now throw divorce remarriage in there, how parents should be actively involved, teaching their children rather than entertaining themselves constantly… how many people?

Pass out tracts. Go to malls with shirts that say "Ask me about Jesus". Tell people "smile Jesus loves you", and see if it opens dialog. Go to parks with meals with a sign that says "join us for a FREE meal and fellowship". Setup volleyball at parks and invite locals to join. Have people on hand with good theological apologetics especially for Calvinistic views and Catholic views.

We don’t need to wear shirts that say, asked me about Jesus. Particularly the ladies are walking advertisement already. Debating does not win converts.

I love that you agree. I'd love to see us Anabaptists with 100+ churches in every major city. That would be incredible!

I agree that we should be spending money to do plants in areas without churches here. I don’t agree with your views of how to do so. We are counterculture for a reason we aren’t just going to go copy the latest mega church and their trends.

[Sudsy]

First churches need to get into cities. Make a presence known. Set up seminars. Invite the communities. Set up food distros. Set up help seminars. Reach out to single mothers. Set up Biblically moral teaching venues covering topics like movies, music, family life, etc. Invite, invite, invite.

Pass out tracts. Go to malls with shirts that say "Ask me about Jesus". Tell people "smile Jesus loves you", and see if it opens dialog. Go to parks with meals with a sign that says "join us for a FREE meal and fellowship". Setup volleyball at parks and invite locals to join. Have people on hand with good theological apologetics especially for Calvinistic views and Catholic views.

I love that you agree. I'd love to see us Anabaptists with 100+ churches in every major city. That would be incredible!

I have been involved in various evangelism outreaches and some of these I agree can be helpful. When it comes to making contacts with people so they will someday be open to the Gospel, I agree there are things we can do to initially get a listening ear. We do this at the Salvation Army and have things like a community movie night, outdoors when possible, and even are now teaching some line dancing and playing various board games. Recently someone donated a beautiful outdoor fully covered barbecue and picnic table area and a garden area for locals to grow vegetables.

But things like Biblical moral teachings and discussing other Christian faith group beliefs would not be done as we consider these for subjects for those already born again. Unless there were issues a seeker wanted to talk about and then this would be done privately.

The main goal we believe is that outsiders come to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and Christians involved should have training on how to lead someone to the Saviour and then assist them in their new walk with the Lord.

I have seen these 'outreaches' that never get to the point of seeing souls come to know Jesus and they are just entertainments, often free, to those in the community. We are currently looking at our methods and considering what needs changing to see more souls saved. That has to be the main goal.

[Soloist]

Friend of mine was once on a college campus, holding a sign with a few others, this is shortly after the Paris attack.
His sign read “real Christians love their enemies, even ISIS”
I found out about this from the military man cursing him in the military lounge. That was a very interesting conversation when I stepped into it, and they were absolutely astonished that Christians could even believe in non-resistance.
This brother of mine, doesn’t watch the news and was unaware otherwise he might’ve chosen a different sign.
That being said, he definitely got attention.

There is no point in trying to teach people about holiness when they don’t even agree with the basics with us.
So by that I sort of agree with Sudsy although not the same direct application.

[Ernie]

I'm being harsh purposely folks. Why on Earth are Mennos so willing to go on a global trip to some Swahili speaking country when they haven't even touched their own back yard?

Because they are copying the old Protestant mission model.