Discipleship in the Church

agree/disagree position paper on the statement by Aubrey Malphur "attempts to reach everyone in general will reach no one in particular. once your church's culture is set, you'll exclude some people. this can't be helped."


 Homework II

I would disagree with Mr. Malphur’s statement that a church cannot reach everyone. It would seem like a faithless statement. It is likely to be factually correct that a variety of churches today try to reach every social type and fail. In any social structure seeking growth, even secular centers, it is impossible to include everyone and to reach everyone. 

The most excellent public relations teams have tried in every way imaginable to reach prospective audiences of all types to promote their product.These teams of experts focus on specific demographics and target strengths and weaknesses and are often times rewarded with monetary success in relation to their knowledge of man’s desires. If a church today was to desire to be the most inclusive center of worship they may perhaps hold meetings where department heads would seek the newest and latest and greatest tactics and techniques to reach new souls, to change lives, and to add to the offering plate. They will never have everyone’s captive attention however, as there will always be doubters.

In that situation I would agree with Mr. Malphurs, that once a church’s culture was set it would be inevitable to exclude people. Trying to reach everyone will weary the laborer and in turn set the culture of the church up to eventually exclude people.

However, unlike the socials systems of the world, the ones hiring the biggest and baddest public relations teams, the true church has an unmatchable advantage. The church has the Creator on their side, the ultimate in creativity. The Most High is more knowledgeable on the desires of men’s hearts than any public relations team could ever examine. The Holy Spirit can draw men like magnets, and pull at their inmost longings better than any ad campaign every could. 

The culture of the church must rely on one thing, because Mr. Malphur’s is right to give this proclamation so much weight. The one thing that the culture must be based on is to glorify God and to preach the Word. The church cannot have a single grain of pride in their leadership, or any teaspoon of self-promotion. The church cannot compete with the world when it offers the same things that world offers, because the world will always win. The church cannot be degraded to just a social structure with an active daycare center, a delicious coffee bar, a poppin music party, or a book club. That is when the church has lost it’s focus. 

A church that is solely devoted to preaching the Word of God, to reaching the hurting world solely with the love that Christ has lavished on our degenerate hearts, is the church with a Biblical culture in mind. The love of the Father is the absolute best public relations tool ever known to man. It is this love that compels his followers in the church to want to share with every social type, to encourage them to pursue the Truth, and to attend a church that is only interested in serving the Almighty.

It is time that universal church stops competing with the world to put God in a box. He is able and more than capable to draw men unto Himself, he does not need the world’s ideas and solutions to change man’s hearts. A church that has full faith in the power of the Holy Spirit cannot exclude anyone from His Love. All are called out of the darkness and into the Light. Yes, the church will exclude people as a social system, but as the bride of Christ, it is clearly evident that a church of any size could pursue righteousness and reach numbers larger than the thousands in the book of Acts, simply because of the unfailing power of God.