Here I go a pot stirring.....
I spoke to my friend who pastors a small country church in southern Indiana. He spoke a a congregation that almost refuses to see the need nor the importance of owning responsibility for making disciples who make disciples. They love to come in, pay their tithes and go home feeling good about their spiritual journey.
Then he asked about our new Church in St. Louis. I began to get excited because we are seeing things almost daily where God is working through those who believe the Great Commission mandate and accept it personally everyday. We own no buildings. We meet where God call us. In fact, this Saturday we worship back the park. Can't wait. That blessed my friend.
Before we parted phone conversation my friend said, "Maybe one of these days God will bless you with a building of your own." Imagine his response when/if I told Him we didn't want God to bless us with a building of our own. God doesn't need more church buildings on every corner in America. God needs more Churches (we are the church) released and actively invading our world with the Love and message of Jesus redemptive grace.
Lets choose today how we will serve the King and His redemptive message for a lost world. 1) Go to church to gather OR 2)Gather as the Church to go
Has going to church as the main thing hindered the Mission mandate described above? If so, how so?
Would someone please step up and answer here?
posted by Bob Carder @ 10:56 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Simple answer: YES!!!
Now for a more complete answer to your question.
Has going to church as the main thing hindered the Mission mandate described above? If so, how so?
Commenting on the development of the early church, the authors of Invading Secular Space have observed,
"Since Christians did not have church buildings, there was little danger of the church being identified with a physical structure. However, once church buildings became the norm, the term “church” and the idea of a church building became interchangeable to the point that for most people in the Western world a church is a building. Indeed to speak about the church as people seems to strike most of the population as a rather strange idea. To go further, for a church to meet somewhere other than in a recognizably church-shaped edifice sounds more like a sect or a cult. It is understandable as a temporary solution while a church building is acquired or built, but not to have a building at all seems strange to the point of being perverse."
Over the years, the church I planted in Castaic, California has met in schools, homes, offices, hotels, parks and coffee shops. We’ve gathered at the Castaic Sports Complex and pizza places and Hume Lake and the beach and Lake Mead and the Oaks Camp (actually, lots of camps) and McDonald’s and Stonegate Clubhouse and Castaic Lake and backyards and living rooms all over the place.
You do not need a building to be a church. However, many churches have become preoccupied with property and buildings as a measure of their legitimacy. For a season, I found myself as a young church planter being consumed with the search and acquisition of a permanent facility for our church. Once we purchased property and a building, so much of our resources were consumed with the maintenance and expansion of the church campus.
For many churches, buildings have become an obstacle to missional activity. Rather than viewing property and buildings as tools to accomplish the mission of the church, they are viewed as status and success and something to be preserved.
The subtlety of edificialism (a preoccupation with property and buildings) has resulted in a misunderstanding of the church as a destination. However, the Bible states very plainly that God does not dwell in a building made with human hands.
Thanks for a thought provoking post. I find iit interesting that God speaks to so many of us about the same things at the same time, even when we live in different places under different circumstances. I have been following a series of posts at http://ceruleansanctum.com/ that echo many of these thoughts. We are dealing with this right now in our own congregation. How to turn the focus outward where it should be instead of always looking inawrd to our own needs.
God is up to something in America and around the world. I appreciate you guys and your comments.
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