The Vision.

 

Here in lies an extensive reasoning and definition of my vision for Calvary Chapel of Charlottesville. It’s long. I shared the summary yesterday to the congregation (1/27/08).. but here’s the big picture – in print.

Intro:

For nearly five years now, I’ve been wrestling with a little three word phrase:

“church without walls”

The article I read this in never once gave any form of definition. I couldn’t help but ask, “What is a church without walls?” Here it is, nearly five years later and I’m still asking this nagging question. Slowly, piece by piece, I believe the Lord has begun to show me what the church without walls is. With equal importance, I’m also beginning to see why the church without walls is important.

The Problem:

The church has mis-communicated itself to society. The culture of Christianity has been telling the world “what” the church is. (Church is a place. Church is a style. Church is a doctrine. Church is an atmosphere. Church is a format.) The Bible never defined church like this. Instead of relaying a message of “what the church is”, we desperately need to relay the message of “who the church is”. The church is not comprised of bricks and steel. The church is solely comprised of people.

Who is the church?

· We who are part of it know that the church is a family of redeemed individuals who have commonly received the forgiveness that Jesus earned on our behalf through the cross.

· We know that our purpose is to: love, serve, worship, pray and grow because we are responding to the grace of God.

· We have received nothing from God through personal merit. Therefore, our hearts should be humble, not ascribing ourselves to be better than anyone else.

Here’s where the conflict arises.

What does society say that the church is?

· Much of society sees the church as a “what” and not a “who”. The church is an institution of individuals who gather together weekly to meet out religious obligations.

· Society sees a people who are only interested in their own agendas, and for the most part are inwardly focused.

· Society sees a people who are; uptight, arrogant and judgmental.

Below are a few quotes from a recent update put out by the Barna Research Group. This report echoes the information that has been gathered in many of their other surveys along with the research Dan Kimball did in his book: They Like Jesus But Not The Church.

“While Christianity has typically generated an uneven reputation, the research shows that many of the most common critiques are becoming more concentrated. The study explored twenty specific images related to Christianity, including ten favorable and ten unfavorable perceptions. Among young non-Christians, nine out of the top 12 perceptions were negative. Common negative perceptions include that present-day Christianity is judgmental (87%), hypocritical (85%), old-fashioned (78%), and too involved in politics (75%)”

“When young people were asked to identify their impressions of Christianity, one of the common themes was “Christianity is changed from what it used to be” and “Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus.”

“In our interviews, we kept encountering young people – both those inside the church and outside of it – who said that something was broken in the present-day expression of Christianity.”

This article can be found at: http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=280

For the most part, the church has not been aware of this conflict between reality and perception. In most cases, the responding attitude is not healthy. I’ve perceived an attitude in the church that looks upon the outside world with disdain, not feeling the need or inclination to communicate who the church really is. Many are content to build their entire social network from within their church and totally exclude the outside world. Unfortunately, this behavior generally leads to a strong sense of false piety and a judgmental attitude. The Pharisees dissed Jesus for hanging out with tax-collectors. Remember His response? “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Lk. 5:31) Paul rebuked the church in Corinth for accepting and fellowshipping with believers who were practicing sexual immorality. However, when he told them to put the evil person away, he was referring to the evil person in the church, not the evil persons who are on the outside. In I Cor. 5:10, he makes it clear. We should not separate ourselves from the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters. The words of Christ Himself just emphasized that, “those who are well have no need of a physician”. By denying the teachings of both Jesus and Paul on this topic, we are causing the church to communicate a negative message. It’s obvious that the church doesn’t intend to do this, but the sad truth still remains: this is the message that many outside our walls have received.

Programs of Man vs. God’s Plan

There are a lot of ideas floating around concerning the manner in which the church should; organize, practice and present itself. Many who are in the traditional camp look to the new ministry models and blame them for utilizing the methods of secular society to grow their fellowships. The new church models are in turn looking to the traditional camps and criticizing them for lacking innovation and ignoring the changes in modern culture. Whether they are willing to admit it or not, both models are utilizing a common motivation. Underneath the philosophies and the practices, most churches are driven primarily with the need to reach people with the gospel and disciple them in the faith. To do that, most churches are providing: programs, methods, and styles that are meant to be appealing to different segments of society. The modern churches are doing what they do to be more inviting to a modern crowd. The traditional churches continue to do what they do for the same reason. They want to be inviting to a traditional crowd. Simultaneously, the two different groups conflict with one another over their interpretations of God’s plan vs. the programs of man.

The moment a church ministry seeks to do something innovative, there are groups that look on and accuse them for using the secular philosophies of marketing and psychology to grow their fellowships. For this reason, many pastors and church leaders ignore any leading that might move them away from the traditional standard of their particular denomination/organization. I have observed, however, that no matter what the style is, (be it old or new), there already exists some form of marketing and psychology. This applies to: the most ritualistic churches, the fundamental fellowships, the post-Jesus People movement charismatic churches, the “Seeker Friendly” churches and the Emerging/Emergent churches. Each group has its own unique style, providing an atmosphere of comfort and familiarity, while communicating in a distinctive way to the folks who find identity there.

Sometimes, God’s plan gets a little blurred through the programs of man. If secular society was divided up into five different groups who only witnessed one of the five church/ministry styles listed above, they’d each walk away with a different interpretation of what the church is. This brings me back to my initial dilemma. How can we be a body of believers who fellowship together in: the Word, worship and ministry, while communicating with clarity who (not what) the church really is?

Individuals are called to communicate their faith in all things. Our actions, our words and our motivations should be glorifying to God, and thus, should communicate sincerity to the onlookers. I love the “whatever” verses in the Bible; the ones that encompass every deed. (3 John 5, I Cor 10:31, Gal 6:7, Eph 6:8, Col 3:17, Col 3:23) Whatever we do should be glorifying to God. That means, our every deed should be sincere and excellent. If we’re glorifying God, there’s no room for pride, but humility serves a huge role. If we’re glorifying God, there’s no room for selfishness, but generosity gets to spread its wings. Such actions and attitudes will not only please God, but they will provide clear and concise communication to the world outside.

We also have several scriptures that call us as individuals to: present ourselves properly, be an example and serve openly. (Col 1:22, I Tim 3:7, I Thes 4:12, Col 4:5, Prov 2:7, 11:3, Gal 5:13, Matt 20:24-28, I Thes 5:22).

If we as individuals are acting decisively to communicate our faith in such a manner, shouldn’t we as a corporate body of believers strive even harder to make sure; our “whatevers”, our “presentations” and our “examples” are properly communicating who we are, and not what we are. Most gatherings are organized and recognized by: signage, adds in the paper, the Yellow Pages, Web Sites and bumper stickers. As an individual, I don’t go around shouting to the world, “Look at me, I’m a Christian!” However, our organized gatherings do. For this reason, I believe the church should reconsider its corporate: “whatevers, presentations and examples” and strive to be fellowships that effectively communicate: sincere, humble and generous love.

 

Should we consider a change?

“Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

“Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

“… I have made you hear new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them.”

(Isa 42:9, 43:19, 48:6)

Should we consider a change? Yes!

Should we make a change? Well, the yes doesn’t come so quickly to this question. Deconstructing and rebuilding the way we organize our church fellowship is a scary task. Even small changes can be intimidating. Why? The change affects every person who calls that fellowship “home”. As a pastor, I can’t take possession and say, “The church is mine and therefore it should conform to my ideas.” No way! The church isn’t mine. I can only look to the folks who faithfully find fellowship in our midst and say with them, “the church is ours”. If God has impressed me with a vision for change, then I need to pass that vision on to the body. If I leave them out and make changes behind closed doors, the damages that occur will have been unnecessary.

It is my goal, through this article, to lay a foundation for change. If nothing else, I want to impress upon those who read this that change can be effective, even if nobody else is doing it. In our culture there are many churches that are changing for the simple sake of change. Many churches are decking out the traditional format of ministry with blue jeans and video clips; however, underneath the layer of grunge, the overall communication issue remains the same. In fact, the communication issue might even be worse. Remember, the motivation of this article is to discover how we as the church can communicate ourselves effectively to the world around us. If we emphasize “what” we are with all the modern fluff, then people will walk away talking about “what” the church is. The program gets emphasized over the people, and the wrong thing claims the attention of the onlooker. The modern changes we make in our ministry style might produce more attendance and a buzz of excitement, but, does it improve the communication of WHO the church is? So far, I haven’t seen it.

We need to emphasize “people” over “program”!

How do we do that?

“they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love. They will know we are Christians by our love.”

First off, before I go down this path, allow me to emphasize this important fact.

Our weekly worship gatherings are important! In fact, we can make the changes I will propose without messing up our Sunday morning. (Maybe in your head you’re hearing the sound of screeching tires. “What’s up Chad? Are you messing with our heads? Have we read this far to find out that you’ve said nothing?”) Most of us who are in the church have preconceived ideas that have led us down a mental path of changing “Sunday morning”. I’m talking about change in the church. As a response, we subliminally think of church as a “what” rather than a “who”, so we immediately apply those thoughts of change to our ideas of “Sunday morning”. Those of us who are pastors have had this mentality pounded into our heads. We are told that our best opportunity to impress, (oh yea, and ultimately reach), the onlooker, is by having an impressive program on Sunday morning. It might be our best opportunity if it’s our main emphasis. It might be our best opportunity if that’s all we’re doing. It might be our best opportunity if we ourselves have lost sight of “who” the church is.

For most churches, Sunday morning has become our “all in all”. There is an underlying current that motivates us to: gain, keep and plug people in.

· We decorate to make people feel comfortable.

· We provide peer-relative social groups to give people a sense of identity.

· We make everything we offer as convenient as it can possibly be.

· We have a cool young youth pastor with a soul patch and an electric guitar.

· Our messages are positive and uplifting.

· The scheduled timings are designed to line up with the average attention span of a young adult.

· We greet everyone to make them feel welcomed.

· We don’t greet anybody to make them feel more comfortable.

· Signage Everywhere!!!

Maybe we need to re-evaluate just what our Sunday (or, whatever day) gathering is all about. I totally understand the rational that states: “The more people we get, the more people we can reach.” We definitely want to reach more people, but sometimes, the “reaching” takes a back seat to the “getting”. Is “growing the church” our main goal? Are we really seeking to fill more seats and build bigger budgets? Do we really strive to buy better stuff and hire more staff? Are these the things that drive us?

What is Sunday all about?

All week long, the church is being active as witnesses and servants in the community it resides in. That’s where the real central work of the church is going on. Then, once or twice a week, the church comes together as a family. This is our time to: rejoice, be charged up, share, listen, pray, worship, learn, be corrected and fellowship. When I was very young my family gathered at Grandma’s house every Sunday afternoon. All the: aunts, uncles and cousins were there. We all shared a meal, talked about the week, played and rested. In a way, this is what our Sunday mornings should be like. It should be one of the many elements that define our participation as members of the church (body of Christ).

…and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” (Acts. 2:47b)

Why did the Lord add to that early church? What was going on there? How were they behaving? What were they doing? The answers to these questions are found in the previous 5 verses.

The continued steadfastly in: the apostles’ doctrines, fellowship, sharing meals and prayer. They were together often. They pooled their resources together to help out the poor and needy. They gathered regularly in the temple and fellowshipped from house to house. There was gladness and simplicity of heart. Because of these behaviors, the following things happened: 1. Fear came upon every soul. 2. There were miracles. 3. They had favor with all people. 4. The Lord added to the church.

The church described in Acts 2:42-47 does not compare well with the church of 2008. The church in Acts 2 was attractive. People looked in from the outside and they saw something good. Love, compassion, Joy and sincerity emanated from the midst of their fellowship. The people of that early church made a commitment to each other, and it showed. For this reason, when the Holy Spirit convicted and drew the unbeliever to the place of salvation, they weren’t put off by the reputation of the church. They didn’t grieve conviction because of their negative impressions of Christianity. Instead, the church of Acts 2 was attractive. Therefore, conviction of the Spirit was embraced and fellowship was sought out without reservation.

I believe the church of 2008 can be attractive too. To make it happen, we need to turn something around. Instead of being a Sunday-priority church that does outreach on the side, we need to be an “outreach-priority” that does church on the side. For those who are only interested in Sunday, it’s still there. For those who are moved to grow into a greater and more effective place of servanthood, we will be prepared to facilitate it.

Here’s the basic plan… “Overflow Community Center”

We are poor stewards of our worship facility. Most of the time, it’s empty. Instead of using it solely for Sunday, I propose that we use it throughout the week, to provide different avenues of service to our community. On Sunday, this will be the place where Calvary Chapel meets. We’ll continue to use if for church-worship related functions Tuesday nights and Wednesday nights, but for the rest of the time, it will operate as The Overflow Community Center. What will go on in the O.C.C.? The options are only limited by the gifts and the willingness of the people who serve.

Here are a few options: Single Mom’s Support Group, Group Music Lessons, Computer Training, Budget Counseling, Hobby Related Workshops, Tutoring, Addiction Related Support Groups, Game Nights, Audio Production, etc.

Why would we offer these services? Each group would be a practical means to support and encouragement to the people of our community. By expressing love in a real hands on way: we will be imitating the examples of Jesus, we will be building relationships, we will be given opportunities to share the gospel, we will find ourselves experiencing rich and edifying fellowship with one another and we will become attractive, in the same way that the Acts 2 church was attractive. All of this leads to the ultimate goal, of God adding to the church daily, (we’d even be happy with weekly), those who are being saved.

By providing the “Overflow Community Center”, we will be communicating a more consistent message to the world around us, of just exactly what and who the church really is.

Those who have ideas for service groups in the Community Center will submit a proposal by filling out an information sheet. This will help them to formulate and organize their idea, plus, enable us to properly schedule and supply what is needed for each group. As the groups come together, we will establish a monthly calendar, website, newsletter and mailing list to promote the opportunities that we are providing. Each service group proposal will be reviewed by the board of Calvary Chapel to insure that it is within the boundaries of our vision, values and doctrine. Upon approval, it will be organized, scheduled and promoted.

Conclusion:

Our ultimate goal is summed up in I Cor. 10:31-33

1. Do all to the glory of God.

2. Give no offense.

3. Seeking the profit of many.

4. Why? That they might be saved.