the past few days i have really been thinking about church. what is church? what does it take to have church? what are the components of a church? what would Jesus say if he saw the church of today.
the other night at barn bash i heard many people say that "this is what the real church should look like." and "i think this is what Jesus had in mind when he thought about the church.
the barn bash vision is not to push Christ on people but to build inroads or bridges into the community t0 show the love of Christ through serving.
there wasnt a huge push to have commitments made. there wasnt a rule that you had to be at this band or hear the message in the cafe. there were however christians serving free food, there were christians having a bmx demonstration. there was an acoustic set in the cafe where one could rest, have some coffee and listen to christian music.
there wasnt a "sanctuary" that had a "worship band" with a "message." there were however people who loved, sacrificed, served and showed grace and mercy to christians and the non
christians alike. it was amazing to see Christ represented through tangible stuff. i know saturday there were more seeds planted and watered than i have seen in along time. people are talking around town about how great it was to have a safe place to go, to know that they would not get in trouble or harassed for being who they are. people felt loved and appreciated. when people said thank you for putting in on, we responded by thank you for coming.
we might never know the outcome of what happened through this church we happen to call barn bash. it only meets once a year but i bet has a lot more impact then we realize and will be the only church that some of these people will go to this year, maybe even ever. but the community, the love and unity showed that night was amazing. that is without a doubt what Jesus wanted to happen. he wanted us to display love and servanthood in these ways. and this past saturday we built more inroads into the community and had community with them.
1 comment:
More good stuff. It's amazing, I am just starting to redifine this in my own life. I preached recently on Ephesians 4, in which Paul talks about community. It hit me: That's what church is, community. It's not preaching, or singing, though those are generally viewed as spiritually enhancing activities. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on community. Keep it real.
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