Your Church is too small

Many years ago, there was a book titled Your God Is Too Small. I've been thinking about how churches are too small. The megachurches are especially too small.

You see, we tend to think of "our" church as simply the group we may gather with on Sundays. George Barna 'documents' millions who've 'left' the church. And we live and breath as if the churches we attend are "ours", though we mouth that they belong to Jesus.

But it's interesting that while there are 33 references to churches in the New Testament, there are 112 to "church". Most of those 33 references refer to churches across multiple cities. There is no clear example of referring to churches within a single city. This despite historical evidence that in many areas, churches met in homes. It seems to imply that groups meeting in different homes in the same city were considered a part of the same church.

We tend to think of a church, or at least practice church, as being a club we join. We talk of "placing membership" (a club mentality). Our churches add amenities, they offer programs, they approach ministry as being some centralized bureaucracy. To do anything for the club, you pretty much have to be a faithful attender, go through some screening of the church, et al. I'm increasingly seeing this as all such small thinking.

Acts tells us that the Lord added the first disciples to the church. The church is the body of Christ, not the bodies of Christ.

The book So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore presents an image of church that is so much larger. It shows it as a community of believers that live beyond the clubs we've formed. It is a beautiful picture in my mind.

We need to adopt a mentality that every disciple is a member of our church, and treat him as such. We need to get beyond our club mentality. It'll mean practicing more hospitality, being less programmatic and open about our ministries. It will mean that some of us don't attend the same "church" two Sundays in a row, or even the same one more than once per month. It may lead to the collapse of some churches. More meeting in homes.

You see, your church is every disciple around you. Every disciple you meet while working in a strange city away from home.

Such an approach to thinking is new to me. Something mouthed about church that I'm really beginning to digest. It undermines, I'm discovering, much of what I've previously written in this part of the blogosphere. Much to revisit about the thinking on "redemptive community". There's still a place, I believe, for walking with a "core", to having a community within this larger church.

I'd love responses. I'd love input. Write, comment, whichever.

Detoxing

Sorry that no one has posted here in awhile. At the beginning of May, I went to a "Advanced Boot Camp" held by Ransomed Heart Ministries. A lot to unpack for myself, some related to the themes of this blog site. After that, I've come across some books that I want to blog on as well as I've unpacked them.

I have much to say on this blog on some things that come to mind, as I finally organize it in my head and have time, but you may have noticed the only change to this site since the last blog (April 21), a link to an article on detoxing. I wanted to say a few words about it and thoughts it sparks. I have much more to say on this, and some of it will come out in future blogs --

As for myself, having read that article, I realize now that I continue to detox from the consumerism idol that has penetrated the church, though it is much more than consumerism. Ultimately it is about connecting to Jesus directly rather than through a proxy we call "church".

When I started what I recognize as the detox process, it was about leaving the IC for "something better". God frustrated that "something better". There are some guys who I talk with via e-mail and by phone on occasion who are going through the same process, or almost the same. We feel called to something more, and for some of us that means detoxing as a step, though maybe some of us may not realize that. Some have been on a journey much longer than me, some were or are considering something like "detoxing". Some are looking to "detox" from within "the walls of a church".

I actually met about half the group face to face (not all at once -- we couldn't corral them together) at Advanced about a month ago. About a half dozen of us were talking with Craig. Craig made some excellent points about what church is. Our mindset is so often about church being something we go to, something that has authority in our lives, it is hard to break from that kind of thinking. But church is what Jesus adds us to. It's the body. "church" can happen anywhere, anytime we are with other disciples. Really got me thinking about what church is in a new light.

God has led me through a journey since that time that has solidified much of it. I read So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore and The Shack. Conversations with people. My own conclusion is that the church is out there, but your church is too small if you think it is a gathering of people in a home, coffee shop or a building that holds thousands.

It is in humility now that I submit the question to God: how do you wish me to engage with the church?

I know that however I do it, it's about relationships. Maybe God will bring it to my neighborhood. Maybe I need to engage with some of these so called "churches" out there that have at least some disciples and not just attenders or followers of a senior pastor personality. Who knows? God. And I'm listening.