Meat Market Ministry: Two Signs of a Healthy Church are Sexual Immorality and Heresy
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, June 17, 2008
- Viewed 78
- (18) comments so far
Here’s his definition of meat market ministry:
Meat-Market (n): phenomenon where various hormone-filled twentysomthings flock to a given location for the implicit yet overt purpose of connecting with others in a romantic manner, often to the detriment of the location’s intended function.
Another interesting thought to ponder:
“Maybe our churches just don’t have enough of a bar mentality.”
Here’s the whole article...
And a link to Eric’s Blog...
What do you think?
A special thanks to Eric Bryant for turning me on to this link. It's from Jason Jaggard, one of the Catalysts at Mosaic. Jason has been meeting in a nightclub for Sunday nights for ten years now. One of the things he says is that "two signs of a healthy church include sexual immorality and heresy. To further clarify the quote, Jason says, "this means that any healthy church is reaching out to people who are sexually immoral and heretics. Put another way, when you engage a sinful world, you attrat people who are full of sin." He then correlates this with the first century church. It's an interesting article.
Comments
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Matthew on Tue, June 17, 2008
If sexual immorality in the church is a sign of spiritual health, the the Roman Catholic church must be the most spiritual group of people on earth. What with all the peodophilia among priests….
Daniel on Tue, June 17, 2008
Matthew—what was the point of that?
Your rehashed stereotypes aren’t helpful, and your lack of solidarity with your broken brothers and sisters in Christ is saddening. If one part of the Body suffers…
Jan on Tue, June 17, 2008
I see his point. We are growing and I would 90% of our church is straight off the street.
And a majority of our attenders are dealing with major sin issues in their lives, like promiscuity and living with someone, drugs, etc.
If we are outward as a church and effective and active in evangelism, then we will have people with major issues checking out the church.
Our society as a whole has major issues. And outreach today is defnitely different then the outreach of yesterday. And our churches should reflect it.
Jan on Tue, June 17, 2008
Just for clarification, I see the author’s point, not Matthew’s. (sorry Matthew)
And I meant to say “I would SAY 90%”…
Andy Wood on Tue, June 17, 2008
Attraction is one thing; transformation is another. If the meat market remains nothing more, and the heretics remain deceived, all the while attracting more heretics, then soon teh inmates will be running the asylum.
Peter Hamm on Tue, June 17, 2008
Hopefully as people mature and get past sinful lifestyles in the power of the Holy Spirit, your church is growing by attracting MORE people who are broken and sinful… so it goes on and on, and you’ll always have that. We have a ton of it here, and even though we hit on the point of God’s real plan for our lives versus our own sinful plans… a lot of those folks refuse to leave… yay…
Kelly Schmidt on Tue, June 17, 2008
Speaking as a single who also leads a group of singles, I loved the challenging thoughts. We singles can get so self-focused. It’s good to be reminded that “health” means focusing on Jesus and others, because so often we are told (and believe) that health means finding that “special” someone. I like the concept of stewardship. That’s applicable no matter what your life stage is. Good stuff!
jud on Wed, June 18, 2008
Not exactly what I see laid out in the Book of Acts, the fellowship of believers. It’s more like the fellowship of appeasers. “If we can just get them to like us, then maybe they will like OUR JESUS… then maybe they will love Him”
Key phrase there? “OUR JESUS” the idol one that we have made, worship, serve and convert lost souls to. Jesus called people to repentance, that’s our job as well. The Church is to be set apart, HOLY not defined by sexual immorality.
The word for this is ICHABOD (God’s Glory has departed)
Peter Hamm on Wed, June 18, 2008
Jud,
I guess you want your believers in your church to be fully-formed. I do not expect that of young and immature believers. And I would argue that the first-century church (yes, that one in Acts) was not as you characterize it. The Corinthians needed STRONG correction about behavior on many fronts, including sexual immorality.
The idea of repentance implies that I have some progress to accomplish, and it’s not all done with everybody in an instant… Would you suggest that we put anyone who hasn’t sufficiently repented out of our fellowship? Biblical examples of that are rare, and for the purpose of that person’s benefit. Many of the corinthian believers were behaving VERY badly, and yet they weren’t all expelled.
Billy Cox on Wed, June 18, 2008
Sexual immorality and heresy do make for a more lively small group ministry.
Jud on Thu, June 19, 2008
Peter ,
Where did I assert that all the believers in my Church were fully formed? And what is this idea of being “fully formed” anyway? I became as “formed” as I will every be when I understood that work Christ did on the Cross and his bodily resurrection were done for ME a wretched sinner and I repented and believed. I hear the concept of “spiritual formation” but I think that translates to WORKS!
Back to the issue, the article above implies that a healthy church is marked by sexual immorality and heresy… perhaps that is because these churches are converting people to “another jesus” with “another gospel”.
That is the sad case of MANY MANY MANY “growing” churches today.
Peter Hamm on Thu, June 19, 2008
Jud,
I think you didn’t read the whole post, or mis-understood it, or both. He’s not saying that sexual immorality and heresy are good in the lives of believers.
jud on Thu, June 19, 2008
Peter,
Ok, non-believers then.
If you are trying to draw “seekers” in and preaching anything other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ I totally understand being “known for sexual immorality or heresy.
BUT.
When you actually preach the Gospel one of two things id going to happen.
1) The lost will leave, never return and ridicule you on the way out.
or
2) The lost will become aware of God’s incomprehensible HOLINESS, their total depravity and repent and believe in Christ.
If your church is known for those living out sexually immoral lives and spouting heresy “hanging around”… you are presenting another Gospel.
Peter Hamm on Thu, June 19, 2008
Jud, perhaps it’s the people who are in between your doors number one and two that we’re talking about…
jud on Thu, June 19, 2008
Peter,
My former church had a guy who had been their FOUR years. One day between services out of the blue in our conversation he tells me how thankful he is that our church isn’t “one of those churches” that would interfere with his practice of Zen Buddhism. There were many more people like that in this church who had been in tow that long or nearly as long who were as lost as lost could be.
Why? .... Simple ....
This church emphasized “another gospel”, and this church and it’s pastor are considered one of the more up and coming influential churches in our region. The Gospel and the full counsel of God are abandoned for “How to love your Job”, and “16 ways whacky families work”
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