Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Smith
It has to do with strategies for reaching people and being aware of our surroundings. Paul became "All things to all men" indicating he was aware of their uniqueness and adjusted himself accordingly.
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Agreed, all are indeed 101% equal in the church.
Many many many church growth studies show that "homogeneous groups" or sameness is a major reason for rapid growth. Folks like what they are comfortable with. Thats why in Atlanta Eddie Long, Creflo Dollar, and Andy Stanley each reach their communities and why half of Atlanta West would walk out if they heard hooping style repeat and call black preaching every week, week after week. They can take it for a week or even a revival, but they would croak in they got full bore PAW or COGIC style speaking/preaching all the time.
Different styles reach different people when you look at it in a larger group context. Even the early church had hellenistic jews, more "traditional" jews, gentiles and a wide mix between slaves and freemen. The early early church had a lot of priests in Jerusalem according to Acts and its obvious they reached out to each other as a group... same thing for Paul going after the gentiles mostly and James, Peter and Matthew focusing on the Jews of the diaspora.
Its why Antioch and its sattelite cities grew differently than what the Roman church had going on. People tend to reach people like themselves... its not evil, its just common sense.