Sincerity of Heart

John has a great article that you can read in full here.

The following is a section from that article:

One of my favourite heroes of the faith is Oscar Romero. Whenever I get too preoccupied with church activities or the politics that come with working for a Christian organization, I take some time to read his words. Romero never fails to strip away all of the unnecessary church nonsense and remind me of the essentials of serving Jesus Christ. In The Violence of Love, Romero says:

Let us not measure the Church by the number of its members

or by its material buildings.

The Church has built many houses of worship,

many seminaries,

many buildings that have been taken from her.

They have been stolen

and turned into libraries

and barracks

and markets

and other things.

That doesn’t matter.

The material walls here will be left behind in history.

What matters is you, the people,

your hearts.

God’s grace giving you God’s truth and life.

Don’t measure yourselves by your numbers.

Measure yourselves by the sincerity of heart

with which you follow the truth and light

of our divine Redeemer.

We need to look beyond our walls and reach out to our communities. If we become too caught up in the activities we plan inside our churches, we will lose sight of the needs outside. And that leads to irrelevance and eventually empty buildings. We exist for the people outside our material walls, not for the personal satisfaction of those inside. What happens inside should prepare us for what could happen outside. When we lose sight of that, our church suffers. And then our community suffers, our nation suffers, and the world suffers.

Missional Journey

My buddy Pernell resurfaced today after a blog break - welcome back Pernell!

From his blog I picked up a link I'll be checking often: Missional Journey.

Watch my sidebar for an upcoming list of "Missional Thinkers & Practitioners" who influence my life & thinking.

Minimalize

Been doing a lot of thinking around simple church. There is a book of the same title but I don't own it & haven't read it (maybe someday).

Ironically the concept of simple church really goes against the institutionalized church culture we've come to embrace - even to the point of being willing to fight to the death for it. Ironic because in the beginning...it was so simple, it was real & it was invaluable. Why wouldn't we want to get back to that?

At times last week while listening at Imagine, there were sometimes contradictory messages between Church Growth & Kingdom Growth, depending on which session & who the speaker was.

We've been seduced by the church growth movement to think that the church is the end instead of the true end being Kingdom growth. We measure success by attraction instead of the biblical measurement of giving ourselves away (true evangelism Jesus style).

I like what I heard one speaker say: Every person given the opportunity to experience the good news through a trust relationship.

I like that because it makes Jesus' life about everybody & not just the church. Who knew!?! Also, because it's about relationship, process, time, and going out.

That missional statement reminded me of when I heard Brian Mclaren state the mission of his church: To be and make disciples in authentic community for the good of the world.

I like that because it gives validation, perspective & a good kick in the pants for what the church does "in here" is for the greater purpose of what's happening "out there".

Every flavour of church (even the trendy emergent versions) are being pushed to re-evalute the "why" questions of mission.

I believe a missional move forward will see the return to a time of:

• minimal reliance on buildings
• minimal reliance on programs
• minimal reliance on staff

The above big three have become huge contributors to the church we know & have come to affectionately embrace. What could a church minimalizing the emphasis on these three look like?

Beyond Doing Church Better

The church stands at a booth in front of a river. At the booth they attempt to sell bottled water to people who pass them by and jump in the river. The church scratches it's head and wonders, "How can we get this bottled water into the hands of the people? Should we change the label? What catchy phrase can we place on the label to make it more appealing? We need a gripping brand..." Meanwhile, it matters not how they change & dress up the product. The bottom line remains, people aren't interested in what they are packaging. Word to the church: LEAVE THE BLOODY BOOTH & JUMP IN THE RIVER WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE!!!!!!!

See "The Present Future" by Reggie McNeal.

McNeal says there is a wrong question the church is stuck on trying to answer and a tough question the church isn't attempting to answer but must.

WRONG QUESTION: How do we do church better?
TOUGH QUESTION: How do we deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?

An easy, practical read worth looking into.