Being Led Out

I've been out and about these last couple of weeks. Atlanta - Interim Pastor training. Learning a lot of useful things. Daytona Beach - new church coaching training. Learning lots of useful things.

Two observations: The primary way we grow the church of Jesus Christ is by starting new congregations. We've known it for a long time. To be a church, you plant churches. It's the definition of being church. We are sending agencies. God blesses us and we share the blessing. Anytime it gets tucked away as being our own, well we stop being the church.

The analogy of this is something I probably blogged on some time ago but would like to remark on again here. I went to an exhibit last year at the Smithsonian, of ancient manuscripts. Incredible! Some of the oldest known manuscripts in the world were there. The oldest texts of the scripture were there as well. One of the things that struck me was that the oldest texts were, what you might call, working texts. They were not ornate, not fancy in any way, simple - straight forward - translations. Faithful and unadorned. About the time of Constantine in the era we begin to call Christendom, the biblical texts were becoming more of a possession than a tool. They were being bound, they were illuminated, they were gold leafed, and even some of them were locked. It was about that time that the Empire declared Christianity to be the official religion. The church began to see itself as the keeper of the faith not the ones to disseminate it. This progressed through the height of possession during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. We defined and refined church and began to shrink back from being the church sent.

Second note: If congregations that are failing today can rediscover their roots, their initial dna, and in that dna is a missional identity, "we are a sent people", then they can reclaim that heritage and move out into the world. If it is missing, if the church began without that sense of "we are a sent people", then it may need to die and be resurrected in order to grow. It may never have been a church to start with.

For those starting congregations or interested in them, please make sure you implant the "we are a people sent with the gospel to the community we've been called to" dna. If you are a club or a service agency or a group that merely accommodates the culture and blesses it, you're missing the boat.

For those entering in to existing congregations that are plateaued or declining, find out what the dna is and work with it. I believe that what God implanted in the church never leaves it. It is your task to find it and help the congregation embrace it. The church needs to awaken from its slumber and remember.

Whatever your circumstance the truth is the gospel we have needs to be a working gospel, shared freely, not a locked up possession. Just a couple of thoughts.