As I have shared with you before, since moving to a new residence in Prior Lake, MN, my family and I have been looking for a new church home. At first, we thought it would be lots of fun to visit a variety of churches--- something we never got to do when starting and then leading a church plant in Northfield, MN.
Fun at first...but not so much now. Why? Because our family has experienced a disciple-shift over the course of this past year. Here's what I mean:
When we first started looking for a church to connect into, we were still trapped by "Christendom thinking," leading us to ask the following questions....
1. Is this church the best place for us to get fed by the Word?
2. Is this church a place where our souls will be taken care of?
3. Is this church a place for meaningful fellowship?
4. Is this church a place where we can serve God's people and use our gifts?
Every one of those line items sound holy, but did you notice that each question calls church "a place"? In other words, do some people still pick a church as a "place" to go to and receive certain religious goods? Yes they do. Is a church a "place" where many are currently relying only on the ministry of shepherds and teachers? Yes it is. Is a church a "place" primarily focused on the benefits of its membership? Often times, yep.
Still, church as place is NOT working for most people and stats prove that true....
Church Planters! God is calling you to create more than a church in place, but a church in space! In other words, it's great to gather in a place, but a place has to be for space. Place has to be for the sake of impacting the rest of the space of every day life.
Christendom is dying, maybe even already dead. Many churches and their leadership act, however, like all they have to do is work harder at developing those 4 key place questions and they can over-come a decline in nation-wide church participation and impact...when the REAL biblical effort needs to focus on developing disciples--- dedicated followers of Jesus who impact the daily market-space with Jesus!
Friends: Let's start developing apostolic movements that train and equip people to feed themselves on God's word...to train and equip people to care for other people's souls...to train and equip people to be in fellowship with co-workers, neighbors, family and friends, even complete strangers where-ever they might be. Let's train and equip mature believers to better serve new believers inside the church place, ONLY SO they are now trained and equipped themselves to serve the lost and disconnected on the outside space--- the people they work with, know and love every day.
Let's start churches that are more than just "a place" to go into and thus away from the world. Instead, let's start churches where believers gather to be coached-up and then sent into the "every day spaces" with the transforming power of Jesus. That's the kind of church my family is looking to be a part of! BOTTOM LINE: if we're not currently finding a church that wants to be training and equipping, we may just have to start something ourselves---- perhaps a missional community!
After all, as I have lifted-up in my previous two blogs, "If you want to see something you've never seen before, then do something you've never done before!"
So...how's this thought striking your soul today? For those who are church planters, it's encouraging, isn't it?
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