A Church Without Walls

Story is told of computer that translated from English to Russian. The message was fed in and it typed out the Russian equivalent. They tried an experimental message ’The spirit is willing but the flesh is indeed weak’. To check the accuracy the Russian was re-fed in and it typed back ’The steak is not good but the Vodka is excellent’. [So often the words of the gospel go misunderstood or not understood at all]

John Chapman quoted in leadership mag

- anyone can come in and find God here- like this:

1 Cor 14:25 if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, 25 and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you!"

A church where anyone can come in¡K and EVERYONE is being changed

- nice in theory

- = radical in practice!

- Illustr: when Hugh in skirt + Mohecan came in. You were SO good! I was sweating!. (some of us didn¡¦t know it was David Beckham trendy)

- I feel you all asked ¡¥what would Jesus do?¡¦ and you did it.

What would Jesus do? He¡¦d welcome all in- and journey with them in love for as long as it takes to change them

TO GOING

But I believe Jesus wants our walls to fall down so we can GO, as well. Not just DRAW people in.

- think about it: this IS what the early church existed for

- people ask¡¦ why aren¡¦t we like them, experiencing what they did¡¦

o look at their priorities. They WENT

o they obeyed Jesus¡¦ last early words Mt 28:19 ¡¥GO¡K and I am with you until the end of the age¡¦

Our churches have become so much about ¡¥maintenance rather than mission¡¦ and the¡¦ sofa rather than saving¡¦ that we are ingrained to think

- ¡§I can¡¦t do that! I can¡¦t go! Doesn¡¦t work in our culture, anyway. He won¡¦t do anything¡¨

o And that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. W e don¡¦t go therefore we don¡¦t SEE

o Those words are walls. Barriers. They¡¦re WHY we don¡¦t see!

But if you GO- OUT (leave the 99 and search for the 1)- in virtually all contexts God will bring fruit

- in most contexts you¡¦ll see it after a few years

- God will enable you to FIND a way that brings fruit

Illustr: Penetcostal awakening. Why it was so powerful, influential, is before there were any churches there were people going OUT to save and serve (the whole world over)

A church without walls. People coming in. Us going out

A church that reaches through the barriers of age and gender and takes ¡¥God to the world¡¦

- it¡¦s going well at the Edge. God is ahead of us in reaching older folks (believe that will go well, too)

- need to work at not only taking God to them but making them part of the community we¡¦re building

TO SERVING

And, as I close- please realise that the GOing is a lot more than just going to ¡¥mish¡¦ (mission) as WE understand it.

- we knock down the walls to go and serve in EVERY way

- I have this sense that we¡¦ll be sending out people to use their skills in service (and that we¡¦ll have to adapt our structure to support that better)