The Christian Church – The real community centre!
Written by William
Hello one and all, I feel fortunate to be able to communicate with you on this platform so here goes! This article may not be as articulate or may not flow as well as some other articles you have read from me, but this is really what the Holy Spirit is stirring within my heart at present, so here goes!
The title of this article may use a term that you are not familiar with a “community centre” which is a very British term for a building, in which the local council, city authority or local government own for lease back to the community for special events, parties and the like.
Unfortunately, in both the UK and the US, many churches have become that also, the world out large really only interacts with them when they wish to hire facilities from them, this is a sign of an ineffectual church!
Now, please do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with churches maximising revenues by hiring out buildings and the like, my wife hires out a building for a choir she teaches! But if that is the churches only involvement with the community, it seriously needs to re-think its outreach strategy!
This in turn leads to an issue that we see in many “healthy” American churches, they get distracted by the “facilities obsession” the churches that have no building of their own, there is an overwhelming desire to get one, the ones that do, want to move to have a bigger facility, and the ones who have land near their existing facility, want to extend it!
Now if this is done with pure motives to do the work of the LORD, and done with a prayerful approach, then I commend these brothers for wishing to have this enhancement to their ministry, if it is being done to be boastful, or to set the church up for “sheep stealing” or to jut be able to say, “we have a sanctuary that holds xxx” then you would be as well not doing it.
I tend to take my lead from the good and bad things the early church was doing, there is no stories of “campus extensions” of “building works ministries” or any of the distractions we have today. They kept it simple, they met in folk’s houses, the ones who had more, they gave, and then they started a real community.
Here is what I think, the church, as in the people and not the buildings should really get back to that community idea. Now community is a real “Christian buzz word” and as much as I do not try to appear trendy, this time, I appear to be on the money!
What we need is a koinonia mindset, now koinonia is a Greek word that is associated with the first church, they were truly a community, in many ways they were like many modern day missions churches.
The reason I talk about missions churches is that when I was serving at Calvary Chapel Glasgow, that was something that attracted the wretched sinner off the street and back into the church, that wretched sinner was me and the church was one of love, of community, of true respect and regardless of your walk with Christ, you were welcomed in, trusted immediately and made feel as if you were one of the family.
That situation is not commonplace; you won’t see in many churches the Pastors wife cooking all day on a Saturday to ensure the church as a whole eats lunch on a Sunday! You will not always see such humility, that you will see in that pastor, you will not see the good counsel, the exhortation and the correction delivered in such a loving manner.
The argument I hear most often when I discuss this with American believers (who quite often belong to disconnected churches) is that the “fellowship has grown too large to know everyone! That may be true, but that also means we need to try harder, seeing folks from church is not just a Sunday pursuit, most folks will be happy to know someone cares enough to give them a call or send them a card!
Which leads me to my last point, churches really should not be disconnected, you should be able to go up to anyone in your fellowship and have a loving talk with them, we are reminded often times to “love one another” what could be more loving that live interaction! Try it, you may find a new love for that person!
I know I have went on a bit and I pray this finds you well
God bless
William
