The Church of Irresistible Influence

I just finished reading this book.

I like this quote, "Without its own bridges to the world, church life - in time - fades into isolation, self congratulation, and finally, irrelevance."

Wow! What a quote about the church eh? You know, as I read this book it was easy to start thinking about the church and what it's not doing! How isolated it is! How we pat ourselves on the back!

You know what was harder? Thinking about the above quote in my own life.

Before we can start asking these questions about the church in general, we must first start with those who make up the church, us, you and me!

As a pastor, what bridges am I really building? How isolated am I? How often do I pat my own back? I seriously encourage my students and others in our church to build bridges into the lives of those who haven't been ambushed by the love of Jesus, but how can I ask those to do something I am not willing to join them in? I wonder what a church would look like if not only the people in the church lived that quote, but so did the pastors?