Excellent question, since God himself woos us (at times… to be fair, at other times, he strikes us down with blinding light from heaven).  The million dollar question is, of course, HOW do we do this?  How do we become a community worth emulating?
A few suggestions (as a fellow traveller who has very little figured out):
- Christians could move closer together and actually share possessions (Acts model anyone?) and meals
- Christians could adopt children, sponsor children, and become foster parents (I think the contemporary American church is pretty good at this one)
- Christians could move into the inner city, where they’re far more likely to meet ‘poor’ people
- Christians could move closer to work (or move their work closer to home) so that they can walk there, and therefore meet more people on the way (and reduce their environmental impact as well)
- Christians could abandon violence and military glorification as a way of life, embracing instead the strength of weakness, the way of nonviolence and love of enemies (yes, even U.S. ‘enemies’ like jihadists and so forth--remember large parts of our NT is written by an ex-terrorist of sorts)
- Christians could stop predicating their existence on the death of animals (who are also loved of God) by not eating meat and not hunting for sport (as well as caring for their pets, of course)

Of course, these are not ‘commandments’ or moral imperatives.  However I think they are good ideas.  It’s excellent to say “let’s woo the lost into the Body”, but it’s even better to get practical and figure out how that’s done (or better yet, to study how the early Church did it).  Notice I focused on ‘externals’.  There are a whole range of ‘internals’ which should be added as well (regular prayer, fasting, Bible study, etc.), but most people already know about those.
Does anyone else have additional suggestions?

Cheers,
-Daniel-

Daniel –

There will always be disagreement about some of the things that Christians should do to WOO broken and lost people (sorry, I really like a good steak).  And there are different ways to live out those things that the bible clearly mandates.  For example, someone with great wealth can significantly impact ministry to the poor without moving to an urban neighborhood.

But what about a list that contains the kind of things Christians DO NOT DO?  Jesus was known for things like NOT condemning the woman caught in adultery.  We could be know because we . . .
• DO NOT claim to be communicating the gospel by taking political action
• DO NOT wear tee shirts that diminish people outside the faith
• DO NOT start websites designed to disparage another group (any group, especially other Christ followers)
• DO NOT attempt to solve our differences with one another in a public forum.

That for starters anyway.

Wendi

Now THAT was worth reading the rest of the link. This sort of piece has legs on it and a backbone.

I could stir the pot. It would get thick.