INTERVIEW WITH DR. STUART MURRAY

Dr. Murray doesn’t view Anabaptist’s typical approach to outreach in quite the same way Dr. Good does, saying that our approach has been that people need to believe all the right things first, then behave differently and then you can belong to us. But he agrees with her “that in a culture that is post-Christendom, where people know very little about the gospel, most people need to hang out with the Christian community for a while before they decide what they believe or make lifestyle changes.” When you consider your own church, are you seeing people who know little of the gospel “hanging out” as part of the church community? If not, what would it take to change that?
When a church community is truly mixed with people who follow Christ and people who don’t, at this point, know or follow Jesus, how does that complicate church life?
Stuart points to the UK context and the need for a minority community to discern together to avoid getting “suckered into the values and priorities of the surrounding culture.” Do you believe this applies to your community as well? How well in your opinion does your church discern together? How might it do better?

An Open Community