It's January, must be time for church shopping again
When I first started going to church as an adult, it was to a young Vineyard church in Ithaca NY. The pastor was just a few years older than me and he had started the church himself. 10 years later, his church is doing well and he's regularly blogging. One of his recent posts captured relatively well some things I've been thinking about lately.
One of his messages was that, if you want to found a church that serves people who aren't being served by their current church in some way or another, you cannot serve them in the way as the available churches. There's no differentiation there. And parishioners are busy; if you already have services on Sunday and you strongly encourage everyone to go to a kinship group once a week, then adding a Men's/Women's group is likely to mean fewer people coming on either Sunday or to Kinship group. There's only so many evenings available and people in college (or with kids) have a lot of other demands on their time.
I've been having a hard time finding a church in Seattle that feels like a home. And I think the basis of the reason is that I haven't found a church that does what only the church can do. Apart from the Sunday service and communion, I've found things like homeless ministries, social justice workshops, and similar. But in Seattle it's really easy to find a way to serve the homeless or find a group working for social justice. It's very hard to find people who share my belief in a loving God, and to be a part of a real community with them, sharing hopes, dreams, fears and daily struggles.
It seems to me that, while these things are worthwhile, and the members of the church should be involved in them if called to it as their ministry, it is not the mission of the church. These are not things that only the Church can do. And so when the church spends its time and resources on these things it is necessarily taking away from its ability to do what only the Church can do.
In an unchurched city like Seattle this is especially tragic. There is nowhere except the church where I can find a church community. But when my church doesn't offer weekly adult education in how to have a Christian walk; when my church is not organizing small groups for community building and worship and prayer; when my church is focusing its attention on the same social services provided by the city, it doesn't feel like a church as much as it does like a place with an organ that serves communion once a week. It's not a home any more than the Sierra Club is a home.
What I need from a church is Sunday service with communion, hymns and a sermon. I also need a small group (Kinship group) where I can practice my walk with God with a few other people who become a community. Everything else is secondary. I can find ways outside the church building to help the homeless, the Haitians, to work for justice.
So I wonder sometimes if there's really a church I can go to, or if I'm doomed to always going to a homeless shelter that happens to have a Sunday communion.
One of his messages was that, if you want to found a church that serves people who aren't being served by their current church in some way or another, you cannot serve them in the way as the available churches. There's no differentiation there. And parishioners are busy; if you already have services on Sunday and you strongly encourage everyone to go to a kinship group once a week, then adding a Men's/Women's group is likely to mean fewer people coming on either Sunday or to Kinship group. There's only so many evenings available and people in college (or with kids) have a lot of other demands on their time.
I've been having a hard time finding a church in Seattle that feels like a home. And I think the basis of the reason is that I haven't found a church that does what only the church can do. Apart from the Sunday service and communion, I've found things like homeless ministries, social justice workshops, and similar. But in Seattle it's really easy to find a way to serve the homeless or find a group working for social justice. It's very hard to find people who share my belief in a loving God, and to be a part of a real community with them, sharing hopes, dreams, fears and daily struggles.
It seems to me that, while these things are worthwhile, and the members of the church should be involved in them if called to it as their ministry, it is not the mission of the church. These are not things that only the Church can do. And so when the church spends its time and resources on these things it is necessarily taking away from its ability to do what only the Church can do.
In an unchurched city like Seattle this is especially tragic. There is nowhere except the church where I can find a church community. But when my church doesn't offer weekly adult education in how to have a Christian walk; when my church is not organizing small groups for community building and worship and prayer; when my church is focusing its attention on the same social services provided by the city, it doesn't feel like a church as much as it does like a place with an organ that serves communion once a week. It's not a home any more than the Sierra Club is a home.
What I need from a church is Sunday service with communion, hymns and a sermon. I also need a small group (Kinship group) where I can practice my walk with God with a few other people who become a community. Everything else is secondary. I can find ways outside the church building to help the homeless, the Haitians, to work for justice.
So I wonder sometimes if there's really a church I can go to, or if I'm doomed to always going to a homeless shelter that happens to have a Sunday communion.