It’s Okay for a Church to Die

Hello, counter-intuitive!

What I mean is, it’s okay for individual congregations, or even denominations, to die (disaffiliate, dissolve… whatever).  It’s okay, so long as the Church doesn’t die.

And guess what?  It won’t.  God’s vision, his plan for humanity, is his church (what I often call the ekklesia, so it’s not confused with how we often misuse the word “church”).  He wants believers to band together in the unbreakable fellowship of faith in Christ.

Evangelicals get this wrong because their attitude is God’s plan is salvation.  That’s part of it, but only step one.  The common intent is the “personal decision” for Christ.  Faith in Jesus isn’t a personal matter, it’s communal.

Mainliners get this wrong because their attitude is God’s plan is worship.  That’s step two.  The common intent is the fellowship of God’s people.  Faith isn’t a matter of consent to doctrine though.  The word faith implies action, that your hope of success for your actions rests solely on God.

At any rate, the point is living a Christ-like life in community with other Christians.  (Incidentally, the word “Christian” means “little Christ.”)  There should be as many cells of ekklesia as there are children of Abraham, and just like cells of a body these should be born anew, grow, and eventually die to be replaced by new ones.

Unfortunately our churches – evangelical and mainline alike – have lost the skill of dying gracefully.  It’s good for churches to grow, and sometimes God resurrects congregations for new life.  Sometimes though, it’s time to make room for new things.

Community

Christianity is not an individualistic experience.  My recent focus on personal spiritual growth can easily slip into this.  The book Pagan Christianity, which I’m reading now, highlighted my error for me.  Personal spiritual growth is vitally important, but in a communal, mutually-edifying context.

A lot of declining churches have plenty of large-group activities, which aren’t bad on their own.  What we’re missing is that edifying part, where we help each other walk with Christ in faith.  We end up skipping the walk part and just help each other be comfortable.  If we’re not going anywhere, it’s hard to properly edify.

This is where the idea loops back to personal spiritual growth.  Yes, we each need to be growing, but what Christ intended for his church was that we grow together.  It’s extremely messy, and woefully uncomfortable to be so close and naked around others.  The good news is we won’t be naked once we open up; we’ll be clothed in Christ’s righteousness.

What’s It All About Again?

Someone once pointed out to me the most crucial element of visioning – the Nehemiah Principle.  Nehemiah brought Jews out of Babylon with permission of the Babylonian king to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem.  About halfway through, the Jews got distracted by their homes and other concerns and quit working.  Nehemiah had to recast the vision halfway through.  It took 52 days, so the people forgot in 26 days – a little under a month.

It’s easy to get caught up in tactics, frustrations, ideas and distractions.  I lose focus on the crucial, foundational reason for doing whatever I’m doing.  Besides this, visions are usually full of emotion and metaphor.  They don’t always make sense immediately, so they need to be said in a hundred different ways, at different times, in different places.

For me, the vision is the apostolic church looking forward to the kingdom of God.  It’s the church we read about in Acts, the Epistles, and even the gospels in Christ’s early disciples.  It’s the ekklesia, rather than the institutions.  It’s a fellowship of subversive missionaries changing people’s lives.  It’s a vast network of cell groups huddling around the light of Christ to hedge out the darkness of sin, built up by each other so they can build up the kingdom.

What vision motivates you in your faith?

What’s With the Building?

The word “church” has been used to refer to architecture since AD 190 (Clement of Alexandria claims the first honor).  In the New Testament ekklesia - translated as church – always means people.  I think people get this.  So why do we still bother with buildings?

I’m all for meeting in a roofed-in, climate-controlled space.  What I’m not all for is property ownership.  My home church has gotten too small for its campus.  Some churches find the opposite problem.  It severely limits mobility, since the action usually happens in the paid-for space (especially Sunday worship, which is often the largest activity in any church).

I talked about wandering churches using rented, borrowed or public spaces.  Let’s talk logistics.

• Renting weekly for Sunday is a hassle.  Why do full-congregation worship weekly?  The intimacy of a home group supports the nurture of spiritual gifts, inclusiveness and true fellowship far better than the spectator worship.  Do a big event monthly or bi-monthly.  You’ll be able to plan bigger stuff, attract more newcomers, and cut costs.
• What about the office?  Train home group leaders to handle most of the load through a shared web-based church management system.  Keep two backups with trusted leaders.  Members should get their care through their home group anyway, so no problem there.  Have someone gifted in communication keep a church phone for outside contact, or use Skype for easier sharing.  Mail to a post office box.  Cut down on all the unwanted solicitation!
• Where do you do large-group church functions (dinners, classes, seminars, meetings)?  Don’t do them!  Okay, treat them like Sunday worship and do them less often.  Find a restaurant in town that’ll clear house if you promise a big paying crowd (maybe a member owns one).  Go to the park on nice days.  Ask other churches about space usage.  Ask hotels about non-profit discounts on conference rooms.  There’s lots of options, and your network of home groups will spread the word (remember how informed they are with the web-based network?).

The most exciting chuches I’ve visited didn’t own one square foot of real estate.  Rick Warren’s famous Saddleback Community Church didn’t own property until they had 10,000 weekly attenders.  You don’t need property, and in all likelihood it’s putting blinders on your vision discernment and creative mission strategy.

If your church doesn’t have property yet, don’t get any.  If your church does, look into birthing new churches that don’t buy property (and do your best to keep them out of the mother church).  People will sit up and take notice, and it’ll be hard to argue with the authenticity of your mission.