At the beginning of the Race, we had a men's night where we hiked up into the mountains of the Dominican Republic and camped by a remote river. The main point of the adventure was to get to know the other men, but also to pray. Our leader asked us to take one hour and go off into the woods alone to ask God one question that we wanted Him to answer throughout the course of the Race. During my hour, only one question kept coming to my mind. "How do YOU want Your church to look?" Prior to the Race, I was really struggling with church infighting and denominational rifts. When I read my Bible, there was only mention of one body and one church. From this day in the woods forward, the question of God's church has constantly been in the back of my mind.
I would love to tell you that I had a dream or a vision where God came down and told me exactly how His church should look. Unfortunately, that did not happen. However, all was not lost because in a sense I believe God has answered a large portion of my question. Over this year, I have sat in many different services at many different churches. I have seen countless people who love and serve The Lord in unique and unconventional ways. I have seen how God is changing the nations of the world. Through the combination of these experiences, I am beginning to get a picture of what I feel like God is asking the church to become.
I don't know a great way to present my findings other than to list out some of my conclusions from the past eleven months. Some of these thoughts were given to me directly and some I have borrowed from pastors and contacts along the way. So, here goes:
1. As a foundation, I believe that an inward experience with Jesus always creates an outward movement. Much like the church of Acts, the church should be fully missional. I believe this means both internationally and locally. Every ministry within the church should be missional in the sense that its purpose is to reach lost souls. The church is not a social club like the Lions Club or Rotary. As such, its purpose is not to provide a place for like minded people to meet once a week and pat each other on the back. The church should be in constant movement to advance the Kingdom and reach lost souls.
2. Similarly, I believe the lost souls of the world should be the church's primary focus. Outreach is more than a three hour chore on a Saturday morning. Outreach is a culture that must be created wherein everything the church does focuses on reaching those who are lost.
3. I believe God is looking for a church that will operate inside out. This means that the building is nothing more than a base from which to prepare and launch Christians out into their world to make a difference. A result of this type of operation is a lack of focus on the actual brick and mortar of the building. When we take our eyes off of making our congregation comfortable and put our eyes on the lost, the building becomes a lot less significant. The building becomes purely functional instead of a point of pride and contention amongst members.
4. I believe the church should not be focused on being the best church IN the community. This insinuates that one church is better than the other. A competition ensues wherein one church is pitted against another. The end result is a wall being built between churches within a community. Instead, the church should strive to be the best church FOR the community. With this mindset, churches strive to serve their community to the best of their ability. This "service above self" mindset creates avenues of cooperation between different churches and denominations instead of strife.
5. The church should be a vital component of its community. Unfortunately, no matter how fancy the church may be, most communities would barely notice if even the biggest churches closed their doors forever. This is due to the fact that most churches are inward focused. I believe the church has the potential to become such a vital part of a the community that its closing would cause a massive ripple effect that would be felt by everybody.
6. I believe the best discipleship model is to "Grow as you Go." I do not insinuate that we should not train new believers. However, instead of a one hour discipleship meeting on Sunday night, why not take new believers out on the streets to see the gospel in action. What better way to learn about the transformational power of God than to see it first hand.? As such, I believe new believers should be encouraged to immediately begin reaching the lost. I am reminded of the woman at the well who immediately attempted to bring her entire village to Jesus after she was introduced to the Savior.
7. I believe members of the church should be encouraged to live a life of supernatural risk. A life that makes no sense to the world. The church should create an environment of boldness, passion and risk. The hard facts are clear that following Jesus is not a safe profession. The church needs to reignite the passion with which our forefathers faced down persecution to advance the kingdom.
8. A recent trend in churches has been to try to build a big congregation. I will call this the mega-church model. In contrast to the mega-church model, I believe the focus should shift to building God's Kingdom and not a congregation. Citizens of God's Kingdom are focused on Jesus. Congregations become consumers and must be entertained and filled or they quickly lose interest. I believe a successful church is one that constantly loses members by virtue of them going to live out the dream placed in their heart by the Father. As strange as it sounds, I believe the church's focus should be on clearing out seats instead of filling them.
This list is not exhaustive, but presents a summary of many of the themes and conclusions I have gathered. I do not write any of this to disparage any current churches or suggest they are not following God's plan. One major thing I have learned about God is that He calls each of us to different paths and none look the same. As such, God has lead church leaders all over the world to create churches to the specifications He has told them.
I believe the actual question that I asked back at the beginning has been morphed to a degree. I now think the question that was answered may be more accurately stated as, "What do You want Your church to look like in my life?" As a result, I merely write this blog because I believe there are people out there in which this list will resonate. To these people, I say that God has great plans for us all. His Kingdom will come and we are living in an incredible time to do our part while on this planet. If you would like to talk about this with me, feel free to contact me. God Bless.
