Organic Church

I am reading a book right now called "Reimagining Church" by Frank Viola.  With almost every sentence Viola challenges the ideas I have about what a church should be.  Some of the concepts he presents are a little out there but I think that is what he is going for.  He wants to push you into thinking outside of the American mega-church box that you have grown up believing in.

One particular sentence that I have been chewing on these past couple days is especially challenging.  Viola boldly states, "The first century church meeting was primarily a believer's meeting...While sometimes unbelievers were present, they were not the focus of the meeting." (51).  

I have to admit that this statement rocks my entire world.  Everything I grew up thinking and learning about church services was that their primary focus was to reach lost people.  In college I was taught about churches who were phenomenal at making new people feel comfortable and not out of place.  I have worked at churches that strived to be as non-confrontational as possible as not to offend the visitor.  Offering times were apologized for, the Lord's Supper was a introspective self-evaluation time and the pastor would never preach a deep sermon because it wouldn't be understood by the non-Christian walking in off the street.  But is this what church services are supposed to be?

I know that some of this sounds a little "old school" Christianity.  This is the stuff that traditionalists have been saying for years (probably for completely different reasons).  Those of us who fancied ourselves as "contemporary" or "hip" or "relevant" would be quick to point out how close minded their objections were and how these pastors were afraid of change.  We justified by saying, "If the Great Commission is one of the last things Jesus said on earth then we should do everything short of sin to get people to come to our churches."  This included creating media heavy services that attract an MTV generation, turning prayer into an acronym (A.C.T.S.) to make it easier to do and giving away gifts (sometimes a iPod, car or family vacation) to those who show up to our churches for the first time.  When it came to attracting people to our church, as long as we aren't giving away beer or showing porn on the screen then it was no holds barred.

Is this really what God had in mind for His physical representation on earth?  Viola points out that Jesus' intention for the Great Commission was that those who followed Him would go out (into their homes, workplaces, communities, etc.) and tell/show people what a life of following Jesus was all about.  Jesus' evangelism model was not to build massive boxes where we could store all the little Jesus-freaks.  Jesus knew that people would believe He was real and life changing when they saw and heard the life-change in others.  Jesus believed in one-on-one, or at the very least, small groups of people being taught by a mature follower.  (See: Jesus and the 12 disciples)

God knows that the life He has called us to is hard, impossible even.  That is why He designed church services to be places of refuge for those who are committed to living out this intensely difficult calling.  Services are meetings where believers could join together and talk about life as it relates to living out an impossible dream.  This would be a place where joy, suffering, encouragement, pain and all those emotions in between could be shared among friends.  This is the kind of place where people miss each other if they go days, let alone weeks without seeing each other.

Here an exercise to get you and me thinking:

Step 1: Throw out the picture in your mind of what a church service is supposed to be. (Admittedly harder to do than type)  

Step 2: Read 1 Corinthians 11-14. 

Step 3: Contemplate whether Paul was talking to a "Seeker church" or a church full of passionate (if a little misdirected) Jesus followers.  I don't think He could get away with being that harsh and direct to people who didn't even know what it meant to be a Christian...but read it and decide for yourself.

The idea is that "evangelism" happens by Jesus followers having authentic relationships with their friends.  It doesn't happen by some pastor on stage delivering a comical-tear-jerker of a sermon and then hoping that new believers get involved enough in the church programs to take their spirituality to the next level.

There is lots to unpack here but I will wrap it up for now.  I am sure that this will be a recurring theme over the next few weeks and months.  

Grace and peace.