but you’ve got to get off the porch…
i love it on the porch. at least i came outside and i can connect with people on a personal way more easily. i have made that effort but to really connect with people the passers-by must stop and come up on the porch.
that is what we came up with on our own about this matter of church. we changed the definition of church from CHRIST followers to a building. we made the buildings into cathedrals so people would want to come in and see the church. we made what was happening on the inside so exciting , that buzz that needs to be out in the community so that people would be excited about coming. we put our building on the right streets so we would get attention of the passers-by so it would be convenient for them to come in but we still did it all in the building.
i have a church planter friend who this last year got into a leased building, a $10,000 a month leased building and he told me that “0″ people have started coming to church since the “building.” the people he has, came when they were in the library, the theater but not the “building”. the library, the theater were where the people were.
i understand what it means to not have a building. we have been meeting in a park during the week this summer and it is now getting darker and we need to find a place. i understand how much easier it would be to have our own place but…people are the church, and our task is to go and let people know that JESUS is who they are asking for, searching for, even though they don’t know it.
verse 37 of chapter 1 of mark says, (nlt) “everyone is asking for YOU.” and then JESUS says in 38, ” we must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too, because that is why I came.” HE didn’t say, “let’s find a place and let them know so they will come to us–they are asking for ME, so let’s make it easier for them to find ME by being in one place. what HE said was, “We must go find them…that is why I came.”
the church is not a building, it is individuals who are living out everyday lives, touching people who are hurting, who are harassed, who are aimless, and who don’t know it but who asking for JESUS.
we have go to get off the porch. at least we are out of the house, but we still have to go to them. if that is why JESUS came, and i am a CHRIST follower, then that is what i want to do.
