Tag: church

What to do if people don't want community?

Posted on February 10, 2009

What do we do if people in our church don’t want to be the church? How do we encourage people to enter into Christian community?

1. Preach, teach, disciple, and counsel a strong gospel of grace that is community focused. Demonstrate the centrality of one anothering, hospitality, and fellowship from the Bible, while also consistently deconstructing defective notions of church. Constantly expose sub/un-biblical notions of church. You can do this in any kind of church gathering.

2. Show them what they are missing by integrating a testimony time into your public gatherings. We have a City Group spotlight every other Sunday during which people share something from their experience of Gospel, Community, or Mission in their City Group.

3. Make it an issue of obedience and an issue of grace. Demonstrate from the Scriptures that community is something commanded by Christ. Explain what community is and what it isn’t. Illustrate community of grace stories and community of legalism and convenience stories.

Extend grace to people who have been terribly discipled into thinking that church is optional. Re-disciple them in the gospel by uncovering heart issues/idolatries of “fear of man”, selfishness, hidden sins, and so on.

4. Create “stepping stones” for genuine community through things like intro class, social events, partner’s class, post-gathering lunches, etc. In a culture like ours, churches don’t have instant credibility. We need to create ways for people to know us, evaluate us, and question us.

5. Some people just need an invitation. Some folks would never show up to someone’s home uninvited, but once they are invited community becomes more natural. Invite others into your home and into community.

Community: Convenience vs. Grace

Posted on February 9, 2009

Many people in America approach “church” as a community of convenience. The Bible, however, holds out a very different concept of church, a community of grace. The community of convenience stands in the way of a community of grace. Consider some of the differences:

Community of Grace

Community of Convenience
  • Assumes Imperfection
  • Begins with Forbearance
  • Moves to Forgiveness
  • Characterized by Grace & Love
  • Assumes Perfection
  • Begins with Consumerism
  • Moves to another “Church”
  • Characterized by Convenience & Selfishness

Community of Convenience

The community of convenience assumes perfection. It confuses the church with a product or service, demanding perfect customer service from the community. This person approaches “church” as something that exists to service their personal, familial, and spiritual needs, not as a community love and serve. The COC begins with consumerism and expects to be served. It believes that the church exists for their spiritual, relational convenience. People who approach church as a COC get upset, angry, and gripe when they don’t get their spiritual or personal needs serviced. When conflict emerges the COC simply withdraws or moves on. If the spiritual customer doesn’t receive his service, get his needs met, or get the precise theological package they are looking for, they criticize the leadership, complain to others about the community, and often move down the street to another church to get their needs serviced. No wonder people aren’t “going to church.”

Community of Grace

A community of grace, however, assumes imperfection. It understands that the church is people, people who are broken, imperfect, sinful, people who will complain and hurt one another. A COG begins with forbearance, “bearing with one another in love.” It is others-oriented. It puts up with others that are different, embraces inconvenience. When conflict arises, the COG responds very differently. The COG doesn’t remain at a place of forbearance but moves to forgiveness. The COG doesn’t hold grudges but extends genuine forgiveness towards those who have hurt them.

The COG is characterized by love and grace, but the COC is characterized by selfishness and consumerism. The Church is not a community of conveniences. It does not exist for you to get served. The church is a community of grace that exists to serve one another, to bear with one another, to forgive one another, to love one another! The church is not a perfect product or service with a money back guarantee; it is a community of imperfect people clinging to a perfect Christ who are being perfected by grace.

Preparing for Sunday on Saturday

Posted on August 2, 2008

In preparing for sabbath, what Christians designate as Sunday, I have often struggled to know how to best “prepare” on Saturday night. I have often discovered that late night and/or intense entertainment late Saturday results in disconnected worship and community on Sunday mornings. And, as a pastor, prayer is an important part of pre-Sunday preparation. There’s certainly no one-size-fits-all here, but the principle of sabbath preparation is vastly overlooked by most Christians. We would do well to explore the principle, to reflect on our practice, and to consider our subsequent Sunday posture. Is it one of anticipation, of communing, learning, repenting, delighting, growing, loving, and serving? Or is it just one more event on the calendar with a twist of the spiritual?

Laura Winner reflects on similar things:

Of course, “Sabbath” observance begins on Friday evening. So does, or should, “Sunday” celebration begin on Saturday evening? I remember a family from my childhood who had been missionaries in Sudan who followed this practice. Even as a kid I can recall being both puzzled by and attracted to such a rhythm to life (though I didn’t call it that then, of course!). HT:JT

What would sabbath be like if we started with just a ten minute rhythm? A few minutes of prayer and Scripture meditation before we went to sleep? What if we aimed those reflections on considering Jesus, talking to him, loving him? Would Sundays look any different?