I learn so much more from those who take ‘the course.’
One of the participants asked a question referring to this quote from the Simple/House Church Revolution book: "The church is becoming unleashed as Christians are re-discovering the daring adventure of 'going' and taking the presence (love, life, and power) of God everywhere that they are going."
He then asked the question: What does that look like? Can you or anyone here give concrete examples, please?"
Some great comments ensued:
For years, the dominating church growth models have been centered around activity driving attendance to a meeting (inviting) with the hope that as people enter the building and experience God through the church service (having a rightly planned order of service) the invited will come away having been impacted and return inviting their friends and family. Jesus was less concerned about inviting people to experience God through a meeting and more concerned about meeting them where they were as he and the disciples went along the way.
When our neighbor calls me and asks if we can pick up her daughter from day care because she will be late from work. When another neighbor calls at 12 midnight and asks if we can drive them to the hospital because their daughter has an allergy attack. When a neighbor asks if we can accompany them to the grocery because they have a lot to buy. is that "going"?
A group of us go out onto the streets and offer to pray for people, we pray for healing, personal circumstances, ask God for words of knowledge and prophecy, we sometimes lead people in a prayer of salvation if and when we discern they are ready, we have just started meeting in McDonald's every other week so we can invite people for a free cuppa and connect them up, we're trying to be intentional and build community where they are.
80% of Canadians today will never enter a church. So how can we reach these 80% if we use the strategy of inviting them to come? The only way is to invite them to our homes where they do not feel threatened and do not think they will be bombarded by church stuff. It still starts with our going to where they are, start a relationship so that we come to a point where we can ask them to come to our home for a meal.
…a phrase we have been using in our house church is 'making disciples who make disciples', it's not a hanging on to people to build up an ever growing pyramid system of structure and leadership but an equipping and releasing mind-set.
Add your own thoughts and experiences with the ‘going church.’
Comments
7 responses to “The Church That Is Going”
Hi Roger, sorry I wasn’t able to take the course. I think the word “restore” captures a lot of what we want to see God doing, not only in the Church but in the lives of individuals. I looked up the meaning of the word “Restaurant” and it comes from a French word that means to restore. This fits me because over the years, in addition to meeting needs as I see them arise, this has led to many conversations with people in restaurants. I see myself as having a restaurant ministry. I think this is significant because meals are very important in both the earthly and the heavenly aspects of Jesus’ ministry (i.e. Revelation 3:20). This is not something I set out to do. It just happened and I didn’t even know it was happening until I looked back when I realized that there was no place for me in the traditional church. To paraphrase John Lennon, “God was doing it while I was making other plans.”
for many years in my work as a journalist I took the Church wherever I went. It is always inside of me ready as the Holy Spirit directs. On one restaurant occasion at Denny’s I was able through the Spirit to deliver a man from alcoholism. He went on to lead a better life. On another occasion I led a man in his hospital bed to the Lord. These are the blessings of ministry. I have yet to find a church that ministers to me but my longtime friend and pastor in South Carolina is always there and has a weekly message on Facebook. Blessings to all, Peace be with you, Marci
Love the restaurant ministry, Tom. Blessings to you!
Great stories, Marci. Good to hear from you!
The mentality of THE CHURCH has been, a place (building) as opposed to a PEOPLE.I see the Church as a building mentality like a dam that has stopped the flow of the people of GOD (the Church) to GO.It has stopped millions of Gods people (the church) and millions of $$ from flowing into the furthering of the Kingdom of GOD.
After many years N the building I finally figured out the building was not the Church, I WAS,(a member of the body of Christ). Then I had to work thru the covering issue, and many other teachings that would hold me to the building.
Then one day I stepped out of the boat to walk on the water with Jesus, I left the building (not the Church) and went to the nations and found out after many years of going, that BEING THE CHURCH IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN JUST GOING TO CHURCH.
It is a revelation tho, and I think more and more of the Church is getting that revelation and will leave the building mentality behind. When you go from a spectator, to a participant, its like going from watching a plane fly over, AND FLYING THE PLANE YOURSELF.A completely different view and experience.
Amen to that, Larry. Great to hear from you!
It’s probably obvious to others, but I have come to realize that “going” can be very inconvenient! My experiences with neighbors in attempting to walk this out invariably involved letting go of my own schedule expectations, and accepting routinely inconvenient interruptions. Sometimes I’ve been more ready to go with this, and sometimes not so much!