Here, there and everywhere

I love the church as we know it - it is the Bride of Christ, and if He loves it (and He does), who am I not to? It 'works' for significant numbers of people in some parts of the world. But, it isn't enough - there are millions and millions of people around the world who will never be reached and won for Jesus by church as we know it.

As Ralph Winter said, "Most of those yet to follow Christ will not fit into the kinds of churches we have now."

In an increasingly mobile world, I believe we must become less building based - at least in terms of owning and maintaining a building. The main advantage of being based in a permanent building is that people know where to find us - the problem is that few people are looking. People are spiritually hungry, yes, but they often (wrongly in my opinion) perceive church as the last place they will find spiritual connection, let alone an encounter with the creator of the universe. We cannot keep pretending that "if we build, they will come."

"Church planting is not about how many people we can get into a building for an event on a Sunday. It is about how many disciple makers we can equip to make more disciples and start new churches. (Rick Wood) Is the way we do Sunday church likely to equip  and develop disciple making disciple makers? Well generally speaking it isn't doing so currently.

So here's the first principle - if our goal is healthy disciples, then part of the transition will be to gather where they are comfortable, not just where it suits us. Homes (in some cultures), workplaces (and how validated would people feel if their church leader ever visited their work place?), parks (if the weather permits), cafes, McDonalds (they do healthy food too, apparently, and often provide meeting rooms for free!),  social and sports clubs, schools and University campuses...the list goes on and on.

If you have a church building, don't knock it down - thank God for it! Make it accessible to the wider community, do God-stuff in rooms other than the 'sanctuary', invite everyone in - but don't let it limit what you do in terms of disciple making and where you do it, and getting out into the harvest field. If you don't have a church building, don't worry, it is far from necessary!