Did you know that, of all the times the word “church” is found in the New Testament, that it never once refers to a place? This is a very important issue facing American Christians today, because for the most part…we’ve forgotten what The Church really is…
My wise dad, Taft Mitchell, writes:
“The institutional church’s preoccupation with “place”…having a church building…filling it with staff…spending the necessary dollars to build it, maintain, and fill it…has contributed/resulted in its gradual withdrawal from the real places and relationships where people live in their conduct of life. A place implies programs, the majority of which don’t work. The institutional church is, after all, institutional, so place is central and is the focus of the attractional model.
I did 8 groups for unchurched but curious people, 2008-2012, comprised mostly of agnostics with a sprinkling of atheists…skeptics. In each group I asked what they thought of the church. Without exception each group agreed that “they (Christians in the church) talk too much and do too little, and much of what they have to say is mean-spirited.” In this media saturated, I-phone connected, emailed and noisy culture we live in, talk has never been cheaper. When we approach each day, our filters are in full gear and we actually hear very little of the noise that is directed at us. The institutional church is part of the noise. Hugh Halter and Matt Smay wrote a great book called “The Tangible Kingdom.” They say that the actions we do and the character of the fellowship we form are essential to getting a reasonable hearing from the people we wish to talk to…that the Kingdom of God is essentially tangible, not essentially verbal. Loved it.”
Maybe if the people of the Church stop acting like “going to church” was the end…and start acting like Jesus acted in the midst of the world, and understand that “going to church” is the means…we can join God in rewriting the impression our countrymen have of us…and the wonderful Lord we serve.
Be the Church.
