"Ten years ago, together with my Wife, Rae Ann, I set out to plant Life on the Vine Christian Community in the northwest
suburbs of Chicago. We had ten people join us in the effort. Shortly after, Geoff and his Wife, Cyd, came along. We joined together to figure out how to be a church amid these challenges. We had no idea of the difficulties we faced.
In a few years, We had thirty people and
decided We needed to reach out to the
community. We tried everything. We tried
doing a daily vacation Bible school in order to attract busy neighbors Who, you would think, would be happy to send their children to a recreational venue in the neighborhood. As it turned out, only Christians came. We tried providing a date night, offering baby-sitting services for families in the neighborhood who couldn’t afford it. Again, only Christians came. Someone proposed We do a fair on the grounds we had been given to start this church. The costs Were prohibitive. The chances of competing With the local school district or megachurch in offering these kinds of services were just about nil. Back then, these ideas were what was called outreach. What e learned quickly was that non-Christian people in our neighborhoods would not come to an event or service held at or associated with a Christian church.
Even non-Christians with friends who are
Christians will resist. The question, then,
was Why would we even try these events. In a culture that distrusts Christianity, a
society that no longer sees the church as
positive, Why do we seek to attract people to come to us? Why not instead use this time and energy to be in our neighborhoods, at our local park district gymnasiums and fairs, donating our time, getting involved, knowing the people, and bringing the gospel there? We were living in a culture that no longer wanted to do the things churches do, yet We were doing them anyway." (Prodigal Christianity)
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