In this past year or so, I’ve really started re-imagining this thing called faith. Maybe re-imagining isn’t the right word. Maybe it’s more of returning to the essence of faith. The next few posts I’ll be sharing some of the things I’m re-imagining…
See, I’ve grown very weary of this thing we call “church”. Is this really what Christ had in mind when He called us to follow Him? Is it really all about a 1-2 hour service on Sunday morning? Get people “saved” and get them to come to a service and THAT’s what it means to be a person of God.
Really?
Is that really all it’s about?
Attending a service on Sunday morning?
Singing some songs, listening to one person download all their God “knowledge” to us?
Is this really what Christ had in mind?
I’m beginning to wonder if somehow we have missed the point. The way we have structured our expressions of faith was instituted over 1700 years ago by Constatine, in the 300′s AD. And nothing has changed since…
Sure, style of worship has changed, the way we preach has changed, but the structure of a Sunday morning service as the only way to see “church” hasn’t changed…
And people are crying out for something different.
I’ve heard it said that our structure of church as a Sunday morning service only appeals to roughly 15-20% of the population…typically your middle to upper class white people. That means 80% of the population wouldn’t come to a church service because they don’t like the structure of it. 80%! Yet we expect people to fit into our mold and tell them, this is how you are to experience Christ. Come on Sunday morning, sing some songs and hear someone speak.
What’s so interesting to me is that this structure has become popular all over the world. Cultures that value community, that value interaction, format their church service to nothing more than singing some songs and listening to what in any other venue is called a lecture. Wow. What have we done?!
I believe it’s time to re-imagine what “church” should look like. I believe it’s time to really live out community…not just at a Sunday service, but every day. It’s time to stop doing church and start BEING the church.
Church was never meant to be a once a week event, but rather a lifestyle.
The problem is: it’s not easy to change. It’s messy. Hard. Tough. People will say we’re heretics. Blasphemers. Not really following Jesus. When you mess with people’s traditions, they fight back. But if throwing out the model of Sunday morning service means we can transform a city, region and nation for Christ, shouldn’t we be doing that, as followers of Christ?
Maybe if we threw the Sunday morning service model out the window and REALLY became the community God calls us to be, we would be able to reach the other 80% of the population who aren’t attracted to our model of church….
They aren’t looking for a service. They are looking for community -someplace to belong, after all:
People would rather belong to something first, before they believe in something.
Maybe it’s time to see “church” in a new light. All of creation is waiting for it. Are you?
Tomorrow morning, I will attend a church service for the first time in about two months. I took some time off to help out my family, have some time to myself, and, well, cause I was sick and worn down from all the traveling. And while most people would be very excited to return after such a long break, I realized something…
Too often in the church and business worlds, we confine marketing to a certain individual or department whose sole responsibility is to develop ads, posters, mailers, web sites and social media profiles that are supposed to catch people’s attention and get them in our doors. This department needs to convince people that our products, services, courses, groups, resources are the best out there, and that they are missing out by not coming to our church or business.
I’m sure by now, many of you have seen the video put out by Ellen Degeneres about 
