Sunday, July 14, 2013

Coffee church.

What is church?

The first definition from Merriam-Websters is "a building for public and especially Christian worship"

The Bible describes church as a gathering of Gods people in his name.
(Acts 2:42)
The function of the church gathering is to equip the saints for the work of God
(Eph 4:11-12)

Is how we function as the church in keeping with worldly standards or biblical ones?

I asked a friend who is having a hard time with coming to weekend services why he doesn't come oftain. His reason was that they are boreing. When he started talking about the group he is apart of that meets weekly and discusses Gods word together, prays and shares a meal he was passionate and he discribed his time as life changing and relevant.

Which defenition of church was he describing for positive impact?

This next model is not something I came up with on my own but read about.

How would you feel if on a Sunday morning you came to your regular weekend service to find not rows of chairs or pews but round tables with eight chairs in a horse shoe pattern facing the stage?
As the musicians came on the scene it was business as usual followed by a sermon that was shorter then usual and followed by, wait for it, a set of three questions on the overhead screen and 30 min of dissusion time.

Would you as a regular weekend service attender come back?

Would you bring a friend or co-worker who is unchurched?

As the church are we taking time to raise up people who are good sitters and listeners or are we raising up a people who know what God says and are doing it.

If church is about listening and watching for an hour and a half how can we expect Christians to know how to answer questions at work and at home about who God is and why he is relevant?

Equipping the saints isn't just about giving instruction it's about creating opportunity for hands on gift use.

Church is not supposed to be a spectator sport but it sure looks like it from the back of a service.

Is the model for church stuck in a two sense (listening and seeing) expression in 5 sense body?