by Alan Rathbun, Eastern PA District’s church planting leader
One of the subtle obstacles that prevents believers from reaching new people for Christ is cultural bubbles. Cultural bubbles are groups of people with whom we share specific activities and experiences and often specific perspectives on life. We tend to keep these bubbles separate and independent of each other.
Examples of cultural bubbles include:
- The work bubble. You share many of your waking hours with people in this bubble. Even if you do not have close relationships in this bubble, you still share common goals and language with the people in it.
- The church bubble. You worship and share spiritual events with the people in this bubble. You also share common language and values as well as personal and meaningful experiences.
- The kids’ sports bubble. You venture into this bubble for practice, games, and tournaments. You have developed relationships with people in this bubble through watching your kids compete together. You also have shared sacrifices of money and time with other parents in this bubble.
- The school bubble. Children and parents share different versions of this bubble, which is developed through shared activities. It’s strongest for students, who live seven or more hours a day in this bubble. Their parents often know very little about this bubble.
If we’re honest, these bubbles are not really what stop us from reaching new people for Christ. What stops us is our unwillingness, or lack of intention, to mix these bubbles. Chances are that the people you know in each bubble do not know people in your other bubbles, right?
Let me suggest that we practice some intentional bubble mixing this Christmas season just as Jesus came into our world to share the Father’s love with us.
Inviting someone from work or school to church can be difficult, but bringing people from our church into one of our other bubbles is doable. We can invite someone from church to our kids’ basketball game, or have someone from work and someone from church over for dinner at the same time.
Mixing people from different bubbles makes it much easier for people who do not know Jesus to come to church and open their lives to Christ. We can do this. It’s not that hard, and Jesus will be with us all the way.
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Daily Devotionals
A deeper life has always been vital to Alliance people. In fact, everything we do flows from a commitment that is fostered by our time alone with Jesus Christ. Read today’s devotional.