Change!?!, Community, Missional
A conversation on CHURCH… let’s talk!
When we moved into our new building at Community of Joy, I didn’t and still don’t want us calling it a church. We are the church! The building is NOT the church. It is the ministry center. Here is a quote from Reggie McNeal’s book that goes along this line of thinking…
“… we need to change the conversation about the church from “What is it?” to “Who is it?”. As long as we keep the discussion tied to its “Whatness,” we will keep the leadership efforts focused on building better institutions and limit ministry to those individuals who choose or are able to participate in an attractional program. If we can shift the discussion to “who”, we can be free to explore how the church shows up wherever followers of Jesus live, work, and play. Efforts can shift to community and incarnational expressions of Jesus in all sectors of the culture.”
I think Reggie is right on and we desperately need to make this shift. Think of the impact it will have on the world. We are the hands and feet of Jesus and are sent into the world to share his love and life with everyone!
20 Mar 2009 Martin Hutchison
Again, you write another challenging post, Martin. I wonder if part of the answer (there are many ways you might look at this question) is helping people discover how they are uniquely created by God.
One way to work at this is through helping people know what their spiritual gifts are, helping them develop their gifts and then getting them into ministry based on their giftedness.
I’ve been doing a lot of work with Gallup Strengths Finder through my D.Min. program. The Strengths Finder survey measures 34 Talent themes which can be leveraged to help you achieve greater success. When you take the survey, it reveals just your top 5 Talent themes.
Learning about your Talent themes not only can help you become more faithful in your serving God, but also reveal your uniqueness in God’s creation. Here’s how. . .
> To find someone else with the same 5 Talent themes is 1 in 278,256.
> To find someone else with the same 5 Talent themes in the same order as your’s is 1 in over 33.3 million.
> To find someone with the same top 8 Talent themes in the same order as your’s is 1 in over 773 billion.
> To find someone with the same top 10 in the same order as your’s is 1 in 34 trillion.
What Gallup’s research reveals is that there was never anyone on earth like you before or even now. If God has created each of us so uniquely, then what is God’s purpose for your being here?
If we can help inspire people to understand their uniqueness and God-given purpose, then perhaps their thinking can shift from the church as a “what” to a “who”.
Wouldn’t it be fascinating if we had low worship attendance because many of our members were outside the church, into the community, doing ministry?
Thanks again, Martin, for sharing!
Jeff
I’d be delighted if attendance was low and folks were out being the hands and feet of Jesus…. being the church in the community!
Martin & Jeff –
I truly appreciate the post and comments addressing the concerning preoccupation with “whatness” & discovering gifts and talents. However, I am concerned by the lack of attention to prayer.
E.M. Bounds wrote, “We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the Gospel. This trend of the day has the tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him that of anything else. Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.” (pg. 5, Power Through Prayer, Baker Book House, 1972).
We as Americans often seek to find our ministry “skill set” via tools and resources that respond to the world’s notions of achievement, human satisfaction and efficiency. I am not suggesting there isn’t a place for psychological batteries and inventories, but I do feel the Church’s focus runs awry when prayer is underestimated and replaced by tools, empirical data and target areas of talent.
Corporate worship is for all in community, not just for those whose “talents” or “gifts” are to worship. In the same vein, service is not a substitute for corporate worship. There is a time and place for all things concerning the kingdom and it demands us to be like Mary & others times to be like Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.
This is why even the consideration of “who it is” – as it concerns that Church – leaves much to be desired. I suggest it should be “what WE are”, instead. The notion of community is inextricably connected to our understanding of our “gifts”. As the South African concept of Ubuntu is a sobering reminder of our apparent & unseparabe interconnectedness to one another, so it is with our “wealth” or “pool” of talents as the Church – the sum of the body and not just of the part.
It is only through prayer that we can ever discover the direction, gifts & talents we have to offer – as a body. If prayer is not foundational to our search for discovery, we will remain distant to the totality of God’s bounty and be stuck in the practice of guessing what His will, purposes and pleasure are for our communities in Christ.
Thanks for this opportunity and thanks for the thought-provoking material.
Blessings,
Daniel
Daniel,
Thanks for adding to the conversation! For me, prayer is a given. It is so much a part of who I am and who we are as a church that I neglect to mention it. For me I pray constantly… in the mode of Brother Lawrence who made prayer a part of everything he did. I enourage our people to do the same…
We are NOTHING without our God connection being strong. Prayer is vital to life.
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for sharing your passion for prayer! I, too, am passionate about prayer. For me, prayer isn’t just bowing your head and clasping your hands. Prayer takes-on many different forms for me. For one, I enjoy creating prayer experiences most Sundays at the church I attend, to help people engage their whole being with God (for one example, check-out the prayer walk under the “Resources” tab at the top of the page.
Like for Martin, prayer is so much a part of who I am that I’m almost always in a moment-by-moment conversation with God and often feel blessed that thoughts that come to my mind are not mind, but God’s.
So, though I write above about one way to understand how God has created us and wired us for service and ministry, I’m not intending to leave prayer out of the picture. God has gifted us in many ways, but we need to constantly be seeking God to know how to use and apply these gifts.
Jeff Glass