Dream Church

I DREAM OF A CHURCH

I dream of a church where Jesus is presented in ever increasing purity, truth and love.

I dream of a church where relationship is the essence of what we are about.

I dream of a church where leadership is not exalted above others.

I dream of a church where practicing the Bible is on equal balance with Bible study.

I dream of a Holy Spirit church.

I dream of a spiritual and social church community.

I dream of a church that shares its finances with the poor.

I dream of a church where meetings are held in homes, restaurants and businesses, with group participation where I as one of the regular members contribute and share responsibility. And that these small groups may also be connected to a network where they can gather monthly in a large meeting for support and encouragement.

I dream of a church that is not afraid to try new ways of expressing worship, not afraid to examine traditional assumptions for the sake of more pure relationship with God and each other.

Jesus is presented in purity, truth and love; God’s great concern for His church is that when people come to hear about God they will get the straight truth without our corruptions added. The Biblical metaphor for this is “leaven” or impurities that are like a cancer.

You may think that these proposals are a compromise of God’s standards for the purpose of creating a “hip” church that draws multitudes of backslidden members. But the opposite is true. It is a return to true holiness. And when we stay the course with quality churches presenting a true Jesus then there will be good fruit. The true church is a place where the gospel of grace and the righteousness of Christ pervade. In my dream it is where people don’t backslide, a safe place where people don’t compete, bite or attack each other. We have all had our bad, painful church experiences. We come into church thinking our dream has come true. Then the honeymoon is over when the battles start to rage and people get hurt. I realize this may be very idealistic; however anyone who truly loves the life of the Body of Christ has to be a dreamer and hope the best for the church.

Relationship is the essence of what we are about; I define church simply as; God and people coming together. Neither of these elements can be removed or it ceases to be true church. Therefore the first priority should always be relationship with God expressed in relationship with people. Acts 2:42-47 gives us the essence of church; “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Everyday they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved”.

In forming a renewed church we are really talking about returning to and maintaining the basics. It is an issue of simplicity and discerning what unnecessary traditions we are holding onto. If we maintain our focus on the prime objective then we will be able to let loose any useless baggage. In this brief survey I will propose some ideas on what our churches have potential to be.

Leadership is not exalted above others; For the church to be truly renewed this area must be renewed. In an effort to embrace the model of “devoted to the apostles teaching” we seem to have perverted the simplicity of that teaching. Our churches are out of balance and create an unhealthy emphasis on the pastor office. We should emphasize leadership by elders who lead in many ways other than teaching. So what are elders? Elders are people who take responsibility for keeping the community centered on Christ and his teaching. They can be common folk or trained clergy. And having more than one teacher helps reflect the whole personality of Jesus.

We create a systemic problem when our system reinforces our illness. There are practical ways to create a balance within the church. Instead of pastors conducting baptisms the friends of the baptized person could baptize that person. Communion meals could be served by common folk. Worship leaders also have created an atmosphere of professionalism. Wouldn’t you rather hear a real brother or sister simply read a psalm than hear a performance by a professional who may or may not be right with God? Counseling should be mostly by friends and church community rather than in the pastor’s office. Marriage counseling could be by mentors who have many years of marriage experience. (Sorry if I seem negative on pastors, it may be reactionary)

Practicing the Bible on equal balance with study; Our churches when focused on the teaching gifts inevitably create a Christian lifestyle that is very academic rather than practical. The emphasis on the sermon as the focal point of a meeting is itself unhealthy. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock” (Matt. 7:24). He did not say that sitting around talking about his sayings is enough. If a church has 3 Bible studies they should have at least 1 session of Bible practice. When our church is centered on sermons and teachings then don’t blame the people when they simply conform to what is expected of them.

It is possible that the communion meal should actually be the center focus of our meeting. I have realized that the primary issue for Christians is our personal relational devotion to the Lord, which is best expressed in the communion meal.

I dream of A Holy Spirit Church. I wish I was more of a Pentecostal Christian. The dilemma in the modern church is that both sides of the church need each other (Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal). I do think Pentecostals need more balance using all the gifts including discernment. But the strong point of Pentecostals is that they have faith for praying! So much of what is lacking in the intellectual, scholastic church could be filled with a great big dose of Pentecostalism.

The healthy community uses the gifts of the Spirit as they were intended, to build community, not a circus. Relationship is the essence!

I dream of a spiritual and social church community. Are these two values incompatible? Many folks claim the spiritual emphasis, “We are Christ centered. We don’t sell out to the social gospel”. And others apparently have a social group without God. Returning to my basic premise that church is God and people meeting together I believe that the truly Christ centered church will be a social community.

God has designed the need for community into the hearts of all humanity. God at His very core is a community, Father, Son, Spirit. Being a Christ centered social community also means embracing all the good things of life that are gifts from above; baseball, music, dancing, friendship, animals, social justice, in ways that reflect the true character of Jesus.

What we need is more depth to our Christian communities. And we also need to look beyond ourselves as communities. Jesus says, “If you only love those who love you, even the pagans do that”. There are many examples of non-Christian communities that have great love for each other. God is calling us to love each other deeply but also go way beyond our own group.

I dream of a church that shares its finances with the poor. If we truly want a Holy Spirit church then this will be one manifestation of His presence with us. Observe that an out pouring of generosity was one of the primary miracles after Pentecost. The apostles did not make a rule out of what was happening in Acts 2. We do not see any later teachings about communal property. But we do see a lot of teaching about generosity from the hearts of kingdom people.

I would not teach tithing as New Covenant practice, but I would teach generosity reflecting the character of Jesus. And even if we look to the Laws given to Israel as our example we see that we often do not practice God’s way. Deuteronomy 14:22- 15:11 says that the tithe was first to be brought and eaten together with God as a family potluck dinner and that it was to be used for the poor, the alien, and widow, and also for the priests, (Dt. 14: 26-29). This tithe was a social welfare system for Israel. It was to be distributed by the priests but it was not only for the priests. I believe church finances should be used for both purposes; church workers and the poor. This again is emphasis on community.

In our materialistic society we are very much in bondage to our greed. The Bible has many warnings against this sin yet in America it has become the socially acceptable sin (1 Tim. 6:16-19). A church that reflects true Holy Spirit holiness would reflect it in the area of finances.

I dream of a church where meetings are held in homes, restaurants and businesses, with group participation where I as one of the regular members contribute and share responsibility. And that these small groups may also be connected to a network where they can gather monthly in a large meeting for support and encouragement.

Most churches have home cell groups and consider them valuable for Christian growth. But they are always considered an addition to the main Sunday meeting. My dream is for that value to be reversed, that the main focus of church is the small group and the big meeting an option. Many spiritual groups like the 12 step groups are far more successful at discipleship, honesty, intimacy, accountability. The brokenness of our world demands that we address this issue.

An ideal community would be several home groups meeting weekly and then coming together monthly for a corporate gathering. In the small fellowships the individuals are built up and in the large gathering the individual fellowships are built up. Many small home fellowships dwindle from being too isolated from the larger community. So it is apparent that small groups also need a connection to a larger community.

In a practical way the size of the group will determine the extent of group participation. But I truly appreciate being able to contribute to the gathering. This involves great risk and perhaps too much for most churches. I honestly understand why we have so emphasized order that we have dropped group participation. But if we want to press into a greater sense of community this should be one of our priorities. If we truly believe in the gifting of the Holy Spirit we will believe that he has designed those gifts to be used in community.

The church belongs to our Father and we as his children sit around his table. Therefore, there needs to be strong elders but not to the exclusion of laymen. If we desire the males in our church to develop into strong confident participants then we need to empower them. This may seem too idealistic like King Arthur and his round table where everyone sat as equals. So was Jesus too idealistic in saying that among us no one should be called father? Possibly there were concessions made as the church developed in Acts. Possibly God makes concessions everyday overlooking His imperfect church. But I am convinced that having high dreams for the church is a good thing.

I believe that when we use a restaurant as a meeting place the building will be paid for by the business releasing funds for other things. I believe I would like to open a coffee shop or art gallery that becomes a community meeting place. It would be a kind of common ground where believers and non-believers meet. This statement may be more of a personal goal than something I wish others would do.

I dream of a church that is not afraid to try new ways of expressing worship.

If we truly embrace the basic essentials that we are called to then all else is expendable, flexible, and adaptable. Many think of trying new worship styles as a marketing ploy. I see it as getting back to the basics. I see it as embracing the essentials and letting those essentials be expressed from the hearts of the believers, in ways that are meaningful to them.

We are really dealing with issues of cultures that are ever changing and God who is never changing. In our efforts to be a church that upholds the truth keep in mind that we ourselves are products of culture. Most of us do not see how greatly our own culture has influenced the church. These are assumptions that we carelessly live with.

I am actually not anti-culture at all. In the Bible God apparently speaks to us in the ways of our culture without compromising who he is. We could go into many examples of this, but let me keep it simple. We are welcome to worship with the Lordship of the Holy Spirit, in ways that are relevant to our culture or meaningful to us. Missionaries who spend their lives dealing with cultures usually understand this well and desire to allow God to design worship within the cultural context of the people they are serving.

What is your dream for the church?