Speaker: Mike Glenn, Pastor of Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood Tenn.
There is a transition going on. We think that we have to do what we are doing harder. It doesn’t matter what we are doing — as long as we do it harder. We aren’t asking the question, ‘Are we doing the right thing?’ There is a shaking going on in the churches of North America. God cares more about the lost then our comfort.
You have to have that moment when you can’t turn back. We found out things weren’t working. When 70 percent of your people tell you they don’t know enough to share their testimony with a lost person, something is wrong.
Little dude
Every Tuesday night here is what we find out:
They bring in a ton of anger. They are angry with Dad, Mom and the church. They are confused. Little dudes and dudettes don’t know who they are. So, they listen to the world. Oprah. The church has let them down and has not told ‘little dudes’ how to be — so they will listen to the people who are speaking.
They are victims. The world constantly tells them that.
We show them hope.
Hope gives us our identity. We show the hope we have in Christ. Hope is the assurance. God does not wear a watch. He is not limited by time or space. God is in your past: He is still in your past. He can heal that past. He is walking with you now. He is walking in your future as well. With Jesus, there is only now. That is the faith and hope we talk about.
In this hope, little dudes can find their identity. You are the created work, the Imago Dei, of the Creator: the God of the universe. You don’t simply have a value. You bear the signature of God.
Hope in their destiny. For this reason you were created. We can help answer this question because we have the hope. In Christ, through the cross and the goodness of God, you overcome. You have purpose. The world tells you that you are a victim: the Gospel assures you that you are not.
The church: what are we to do.
We are on mission. We are not a Christian nation. Our culture does not support our children’s growth in Christ and in the knowledge of God. We are a people in exile.
We have to listen to our culture. We have to know movies we may not want to know, we have to read books we may not want to read, we have to twitter, text, etc.
We have to interpret the Gospel in ways that they get. That is why the movie ‘Fireproof’and ‘Facing the Giants’worked. Good movies with good stories. They have a good message and it gave people something to think about.
We have to pray. All the false gods have been exposed. There has never been a better time to proclaim Christ.