Andy Stanley Says It’s Super important to ‘Brand’ Your Church so it Looks like your Community.
North Point Community Church’ impastor’ Andy Stanley continued his wretched job of unhitching the church from all the scriptures and proliferating his bizarre and sub-biblical hermeneutic, claiming that he purposeful preaches in a way so that pagans will feel comfortable not believing the gospel message, and purposefully encourages them to “check out” when he’s only talking about Christian issues.
You’ll recall that Stanley previously said that it doesn’t matter if the bible is true, so long as it’s ‘mostly reliable, and that the “foundation of our faith is not the whole bible. In 2018, he got shellacked from all sides for saying that Christians needed to unhitch themselves from the Old Testament and in a recent sermon, told Christians not to follow Jesus through the Old Testament, but only through the Gospels. A few weeks ago, he said there’s no ‘Clear Divine Standard’ of God revealed to mankind and yesterday, and yesterday we covered him explaining that pastors should preache in a way that gives pagans permission not to believe.
Now, in a recent ‘He Gets Us’ podcast with Ed Stetzer and Albert Tate, Stetzer asks Stanley to speak on engaging culture, and Stanley underscores the importance of long-term friendship evangelism before the thought of sharing the gospel is even a sparkle in your eye:
If I am to follow the way of Jesus, then I begin conversations and I begin relationships not with what I believe or what I think or my opinion, I begin with shared values like Jesus did. This is why people who were nothing like Jesus liked Jesus, because they were convinced he liked them…and as a Christian, I can begin a conversation or a relationship with anybody around shared values. It might be a long time before I get to, ‘here’s what I believe, and here’s where we disagree’
Stanley then reaffirms the importance of the church rebranding so it reflects the culture, earlier explaining that Paul became all things to all men so that he might win some, and this is what the church must do
....we have some marketing and some rebranding to do. But the actual experience within a local church is a powerful, powerful community of people who know they’re broken, who’ve come together to do life better and to, you know, to follow Jesus.
..We have tried to adjust our sails with what’s happened in our local communities in the United States. And not just in the United States, but even in local communities within our local within our city, because a large city like Atlanta or any large city, there are multiple cultures, multiple communities. My assignment (as our) lead pastors is, we’re not trying to cookie cutter, you got to create the best church possible for unchurched people in your specific community. So you’ve got to brand your church to your community so it looks and feels and functions like your community.
Stanley says that his church has been externally intentional about being “endearing” to the community and not exasperating them, last year saying this played a big role in why he shut down his church during the pandemic for so long, explaining:
“We want them to know we’re here, we want them to be glad we’re here, we want the community to be better off because we’re here.”
About Author
Nobody should listen to Pope Andy
I can’t imagine lost people are seeking a church that looks like the dying world…
Google paying a brilliant benefit from local 6850USD each week, this is magnificent a year past I was laid-off in a totally horrendous financial system. “w many thank you google reliably for gift the ones rules and at this point it’s miles my commitment to pay and rate it with every last one ..
genuine here I started … … … .. http://www.richsalaries4u.blogspot.com/
That’s not Christian