Reggie Joiner is one of the best thinkers not just in family ministry but in the entire church-world. I love hearing him speak, especially when he addresses issues that most others avoid for whatever reason.
Here are my notes from his talk all about trust:
- I grew up in a denomination that was theologically correct. I knew this, because I was reminded of this every time I went to church. This worked for my faith until I went to a Christian school from a different denomination. That is when I realized that others also think they are correct.
- It’s never okay to use your theology as an excuse to treat each other wrong.
- In my mind, I believe trust is at stake and there is a trust crisis.
- Political climate
- Experts disagreeing
- Discrimination
- A generation hasn’t lost trust because we’re not preaching the Gospel or have bad theology. It’s more to do with our posture than it does our doctrine. They trust us when we care. They care when we care!
- Reinventing your church doesn’t matter if your community doesn’t trust you.
- How we trust other Christians will affect how others trust us.
- Why do people not trust the church? Maybe because we don’t trust each other.
- How we trust other humans affects how others trust us.
- We should see the image of God in others, but many of us don’t know how to treat others who are not like us.
- Some of us grew up in churches that acted like:
- God is only masculine.
- Racism isn’t real.
- Real Christians vote Republican.
- Poverty is not our responsibility.
- Woman shouldn’t be leaders.
- Bad parents don’t go to church.
- Everything you need to know is in the Bible.
- We are called, though, to go into ALL the world and make disciples. We can’t make disciples if we don’t love our neighbors.
- How we trust others affects how they trust each other.
- Our rightness with God is connected to our rightness with others. (Matthew 7:12)
- Jesus then tells 3 stories about a road, fruit, and building that all points to this same idea.
- How we trust each other will affect how we trust God.
- Our motive to get this right should not primarily be to grow the church, but to BE the church.
- Our concern should not only be a generation who doesn’t have faith, but also those who do have faith but are losing it.
- Christians need to start trusting each other so they can authentically help communities trust each other so God can be trusted.
This concept of trust is so important. I think Reggie nailed it. So how are you working on building trust with other Christians and others in your community?
Steve Cullum 