[Church and Discipleship] Proximity [7/13]

It’s becoming more and more evident to me that we need to begin to think differently about discipleship and even church. The first century church centered itself around Jesus and the Kingdom and then the community followed. We do it backwards. Today the community centers around the church and then Jesus. Let me explain with a fictional story. TheEternalPsalmsIndependentChurch(Yes, EPIC) has a large new campus located on the west side of town. The main auditorium can seat 3000 people and it’s half-full every week. The elders are concerned and have initiated a membership drive to “fulfill the Great Commission”. Not to mention it would help pay off the mortgage. All of the members have been given a stack of glossy tri-fold pamphlets describing the church and all the great programs that it offers. They are being asked to give these to their neighbors and friends to encourage them to “come check it out”. Of course these will be placed in a plastic bag with a pencil and small note pad with the church logo and contact info printed on it. This way, if the people aren’t home the bags can be left on their door knobs. Ultimately, the effort was considered a success since a couple dozen new families showed up. Some of them drive over 45 minutes to get there, but it seems worth it to them because the church has such great youth programs. (The church that they left wasn’t really meeting their needs.)

Let me explain what just happened here. The congregation or “community” that is EPIC is comprised of people from a wide geographic location. Very few of these people live in close proximity to each other. So the church building, located in a somewhat remote suburb, has a small number of people attending from within a mile radius. This means that the larger “community” is from a significant distance away and is now centered at the church building. All of the programs, services, events and activities take place on the church campus (which, on average, is a 15-20 minute drive for most). Then as a bonus, the attendees are anticipating that they will encounter Jesus as a result, especially since the professional staff workers are all very sharp and articulate.

Do you see it? The church building becomes the community since the clientele is so scattered around the outlying area. The only definable characteristics that the community has are the campus and programs. It has no other identity other than EPIC. Kinda like Wal-Mart. (Oh boy I better not go there!)