{"id":71262,"date":"2024-02-05T23:18:27","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T05:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=71262"},"modified":"2024-02-05T23:25:28","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T05:25:28","slug":"addressing-nonbelievers-in-corporate-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=71262","title":{"rendered":"Addressing Nonbelievers in Corporate Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">A Muslim couple recently started attending our church gatherings. Some of our members met them while out evangelizing, and the couple wanted to learn more about Christianity. They haven\u2019t missed a service since and appear serious about seeking Jesus\u2014praise God!<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Their presence amongst us has been a real joy but also has prompted me to ask myself some questions: How much should we expect non-Christians to understand about our church services? To what extent should we address and acknowledge <span data-contrast=\"none\">them when leading, preaching, and praying?<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Thankfully, I\u2019m not alone. Pastors have grappled with these questions for many years, yet not all have agreed on how to answer them. Some pastors focus on attracting non-Christians and tailor everything in the gathering toward seekers. On the other extreme is the tendency to be ambivalent toward non-Christians, never even acknowledging their existence.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">The key to staying on the horse is to find the right kind of balance between these two approaches. The primary goal of our gatherings should be to edify the saints through the Word. And yet, we should also regularly speak to the non-Christians in our midst. If we commit to this, then<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To what extent should we address and acknowledge non-Christians when leading, preaching, and praying?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":776,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[793],"tags":[321],"class_list":["post-71262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9marks","tag-evangelism-gospel","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/776"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71262"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71264,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71262\/revisions\/71264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}