Dying Churches Have Misdiagnosed the WorldA man who was thought to be in a vegetative state for the last 23 years was actually able to hear everything around him, but he had no way of responding or crying out. Rom Houben, who had been in a car wreck in 1983 and then wrongly diagnosed, has actually been “conscious the whole time”, say doctors. The news of Houben’s conscious brain was discovered (three years ago) by an expert using a special type of brain scan that was not available in the 1980s, and Houben’s story has recently begun to spread after a recent publication of a study on the misdiagnosis of people with consciousness disorders.
The 46-year-old man has a mind that has since been “unlocked,” as he now communicates with a special one-finger touch screen. As it turns out, he has heard a lot of things over the past 23 years, including the news of his father’s death, but unfortunately (until now) he has never been able to express himself to others. After suffering so long with no means to communicate, Houben is now writing a book.
While Houben’s story is truly shocking and tragic, the same can be said of the “misdiagnosis” that has been wrongly placed on members of the world by some of us in the church. For example, some in the church are adamant believers that the world is full of people who don’t want to have anything to do with God, his church, or anything “spiritual” – but this couldn’t be further from the truth! In fact, studies show that worldly people ARE interested in spiritual things, and they WANT to know God and understand the meaning of life, but sometimes our modes of diagnosis and our means of communication are so archaic that we (the church) wrongly misdiagnose the world’s failure to respond as “uninterested.”
Like the doctors who used new methods to transform the situation for Houben, the church should be willing to use new methods to survey and reach the world for Christ. In the fashion of the Bible’s Paul, who became all things in order to reach as many as possible (1 Corinthians 9:22), today’s Christ followers (who make up the church) should be willing to do likewise. This means that we should be willing to take the message of Christ, which never changes, and present it in new and fresh ways that are relevant and appealing to the world. We should speak in the world’s language and allow it to respond in its own language, meaning we utilize modern styles of music, performing arts (such as dance, drama, and more), and down-to-earth, straight-forward teaching and preaching right from God’s word. This is what the world is ready to respond to, but like the one-finger touch screen made available to Houben, the church need only to present these new techniques to the world and then watch the Holy Spirit do his work!
Individual churches that are incorporating modern music, dance, drama, and more into their worship experiences are seeing mad growth! (If you don’t believe me, take an hour and research the fastest growing churches in the United States on the internet, and notice what’s different about them! – They speak in “today’s” language!). Churches that have misdiagnosed the world and are determined to speak the language of the past are dying fast. What kind of church is your church? Better yet, what kind of church can your church be when it starts speaking in the right language to a very interested world that is waiting to hear the very relevant message of Jesus Christ?
