What makes a church?
Last winter our landlord came to us and informed us that he had someone interested in our building that could actually pay the rent. For as much as I would love to vilify him for putting out a church, we really couldn't afford the building. We hadn't been able to pay our rent in quite sometime and the cost of our utilities was killing us. Our landlord had showed us grace for a long time, but business is business and I couldn't fault him for asking us to leave. So we began to pack and I searched for a new "temporary" location.
Thirty days later we found ourselves in a park district gymnasium. The rent was cheap and we could store our stuff there. It was a perfect solution until summer when we discovered that there was no air conditioning! I remember someone asking me what I needed to focus on once we moved. They were expecting me to talk about outreach or growing the church or something like that. But instead I responded that I needed to figure out how to do church in our new surroundings. They gave me a funny look and asked what's the big deal, nothing changed. But in reality, everything had changed.
You see, we had a way of doing church. We used our building for everything. There were things that we did on Sunday Morning that we were not able to do in the new facility. We used the internet a lot in our old building. We wouldn't have it here. We set up permanent stuff for the kids. Not an option here. We served refreshments. Not easy here. We did potlucks. No can do here. Then the issues with the rest of the week. Where would the food pantry go? Where would we put on the classes and programs that we did? Where could the youth meet? Where would my office be? You see, our facility was integral to all that we did. And all that we did was what was expected by all the people who came to the church and those who would be visiting. There is a video that North Park Church in Atlanta put out last year that made fun of what their Sunday Morning service had become. It showed (in a very funny way) that everything was programmed for effect. The sad part about it was how true it was, not just for them but for us. The terrifying discovery that I made was that everything that we did was someway dependent on the building that we no longer had. So how would we do church in the future?
The key word in that question was "would". We would do church, there was no doubt in my mind. But it needed to look different. It needed to be simpler, more organic and fluid, and use less resources. But how? That is what kept me up at night. What exactly makes a church? What does it look like? What is important and what is fluff? These questions as not as simple as one might think. And the answers to these questions took me on a journey that stretched my understanding of church and brought me back to where I was when I first said "yes" to church planting. So while I would have loved to focus on outreach I knew that outreach wouldn't happen unless the church changed. I needed to figure out how to do church again.
Thirty days later we found ourselves in a park district gymnasium. The rent was cheap and we could store our stuff there. It was a perfect solution until summer when we discovered that there was no air conditioning! I remember someone asking me what I needed to focus on once we moved. They were expecting me to talk about outreach or growing the church or something like that. But instead I responded that I needed to figure out how to do church in our new surroundings. They gave me a funny look and asked what's the big deal, nothing changed. But in reality, everything had changed.
You see, we had a way of doing church. We used our building for everything. There were things that we did on Sunday Morning that we were not able to do in the new facility. We used the internet a lot in our old building. We wouldn't have it here. We set up permanent stuff for the kids. Not an option here. We served refreshments. Not easy here. We did potlucks. No can do here. Then the issues with the rest of the week. Where would the food pantry go? Where would we put on the classes and programs that we did? Where could the youth meet? Where would my office be? You see, our facility was integral to all that we did. And all that we did was what was expected by all the people who came to the church and those who would be visiting. There is a video that North Park Church in Atlanta put out last year that made fun of what their Sunday Morning service had become. It showed (in a very funny way) that everything was programmed for effect. The sad part about it was how true it was, not just for them but for us. The terrifying discovery that I made was that everything that we did was someway dependent on the building that we no longer had. So how would we do church in the future?
The key word in that question was "would". We would do church, there was no doubt in my mind. But it needed to look different. It needed to be simpler, more organic and fluid, and use less resources. But how? That is what kept me up at night. What exactly makes a church? What does it look like? What is important and what is fluff? These questions as not as simple as one might think. And the answers to these questions took me on a journey that stretched my understanding of church and brought me back to where I was when I first said "yes" to church planting. So while I would have loved to focus on outreach I knew that outreach wouldn't happen unless the church changed. I needed to figure out how to do church again.
Labels: Church
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