REINVENTING THE CHURCH, Part 1
Extreme Church Makeover: Should the church join the craze?
I recently watched an episode of “Extreme Home Makeover”. If you have seen the show, you know about the “professional makeover artists” …
I must confess things have changed quite a bit in my life: from single to married; from uneducated to in debt; from childless to three children; from out of the ministry to into ministry to out of ministry to back into ministry; and along this journey in my life there have been times I have needed makeovers. Like now.
I am also observing a church in need of a makeover…and not just a small one! In fact, in computer terms, I believe the church needs to be “rebooted.”
How? When the “professional artists” arrived in the show, they:
1) Interviewed the family members
2) Learned their personalities, passions, etc.
3) Used their own skills, talents and abilities to pool together ideas, and researched
4) Landscaped outside as well as inside
5) When the family returned, they had reasons for the changes and offered explanations
When the show was over, the family was happy (no expense to them!), you were happy for them, and you were even given a glimpse of what would be on next week when they’d do it all over again at another home…maybe yours! Hey, we can all dream can’t we?
We need to consider several attitudes and assumptions we as a church have en operating by and living by that are no longer working and serving the church family well today.
1) It isn’t about making converts to the church
2) It isn’t about losing your individual life to a collective (assimilation that is futile)
3) It feels this way
Ask yourself these questions:
1) What would be expressed by the members at my church if I chose to “skip a Sunday”?
2) Would a “club membership” attitude emerge?
3) Would a “CSI” posse be assemble to investigate, “Where is he? What was he doing? Why isn’t he here?
4) Would someone say, “He is all right. He told me what he was going to do. Will check in on him at small group this week.”
I am not saying we should not be accountable. Accountability is good and essential for growth in a positive environment. But for some churches = miss a Sunday and the “axe is laid at the foot of the tree!”
So if accountability, discipline and membership aren’t the answers of keeping people connected to the church, what is? Believe me when I say answering that question will not help us!
Let’s ask a different question. First, let’s look at how “Harry Met Sally” or better yet, how I met my wife!
Conforming to the cultural expectations of my future wife was NOT why I was attracted to her. The way she looked to me and the way she looked at me were my first indicators of interest. In reality, it was a God set-up meeting. But as I frequented the places she would, sat by her and talked with her, and as we listened to each other’s stories, we wanted to be together more.
I now look at “evangelism” more like THIS, and less as a “church membership with benefits”.
Therefore we will no longer be a “come and get it church” but a “go and get them church”.
Matthew 28:19 Jesus tells us, “While you are going, MAKE disciples”. The only command in these verses is to MAKE disciples. But notice when and how it tells us to do so: “While you are going”. If making disciples happens WHILE we are GOING, it would seem that it should take place NOT IN the church, but OUT on the STREETS! This is called in today’s lingo, “ORGANIC”. And for the next few weeks we will be looking at how we can be doing this more intentionally as a church family.
