What If We Rethink Church?

My friend Dave Kendall put me onto a YouTube video that really resonated with my heart. It asked a question I want to wrestle with for a few moments – What If We Rethink Church?

I want to use some of the key thoughts shared in the video as a jumping off point for this blog.

What if we think of church not in terms of what it is has become but more in terms of what it was once was in the beginning and must become again? What if church was less about Sunday and what happens in a building and more about Monday through Saturday and what happens through Christ’s Body? What if church was not just a place we go but something we do to make Christ real and accessible to people in the streets?

What if church were once again an active verb like it was in the book of Acts and not looked upon as an irrelevant noun because it was so out of touch and out of sync with the real needs of the world today? What if the resources of the church were not released exclusively for the meeting of the needs of the already convinced but were mobilized to also impact the lives of the broken and hurting that have not even begun to explore the claims of Christ?

Last night I caught a glimpse of what part of the answer to these questions might look like.  My small group was scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. in our home and at the designated start time only my wife Cheryl and I were present. All sorts of thoughts began rolling through my mind about the potential reasons why no one had shown up. At about 6:15 the members of the group came rolling in all together. I noticed they were all smiles and before I could ask anything about their tardiness they quickly apoligized about being late and then explained that they had taken food out to a couple in our community that had lost their home in a fire just a day or two previous. In about two seconds I went from being so ticked off that no one was coming to the group that I was just going to change clothes and mow the grass to being so proud of what they had done in the name of Jesus that I wanted to bust. These guys and gals did not ask this hurting couple to come to a church building to find Jesus instead this small band of believers followed Jesus to the door of the temporary housing where the couple are staying and made His love for them so real that they could not escape it.

I caught a second glimpse of what the answer to these questions might look like as I was waiting for my sister-in-law Twana to come through her heart surgery this morning at Christ hospital in Cincinnati. As I waited with the other family members present a guy dressed in surgical scrubs came over to us and introduced himself as a chaplain. He explained that he had stepped out to give us a quick update on the progress of the procedure but he would be immediately returning to the surgical suite to continue praying over the team as the operation continued. I had never heard of a chaplain that was allowed into the surgical suite during an operation so I quickly asked a couple of questions about how he happened to land in the position. Dave explained that he was a missionary that raised his own support and tried to serve each day there in the hospital in a way that made the love of Christ real to people. Real to both those he served with in the medical community and those on the receiving end of their care. I was immediately impressed with the thought that Jesus would probably be doing some of that same kind of marketplace ministry were He here in the flesh today.

Then it struck me - Jesus was present in the flesh of both the small group members serving in His name and Dave as he ministered there in the hospital. Our church is in the midst of “Rethinking church” in a way that is making God smile. We are realizing in a fresh way that when He is alive in us we are blessed with daily opportunities to make Him real to those we share life with. I am wondering what stories you have to share about your part in making Him real to those you are crossing paths with?