Becka:
Warning: this is going to be one my blogs that is only very loosely connected to the church we visited. Background: the service we went to was a celebration of their 25th anniversary, so it was very focused on the history of Discovery Church itself. Triggering event: at one point, the pastor mentioned that he hoped the people who weren’t a part of Discovery would become part but said that if another church would be a better fit for a particular person, he hoped that person would join that church and get involved there.
I’ve heard many other pastors say similar things, as well, including, “if you don’t think this is the right place for you, we would love to help you find the right church.” Which I actually think is fine. I don’t have a problem with a person looking for a style of singing or teaching through which they are able to worship or learn about God better. On a regular but never exclusive basis, at any rate. I mean, I would prefer to go regularly to a church whose style of music I enjoy (i.e. doesn’t make me cringe from cheesiness in a reaction similar to the whole nails-on-chalkboard scenario) and a style of teaching that helps me learn (in the same vein as my nearly religious conviction that kids should be separated into honors or gifted classes because the benefit of having a style of teaching that fits your style of learning outweighs the superiority/inferiority complex you may be developing due to Brave New segregation). That being said, there’s also tremendous benefit in, for example, this project where I’m immersed in styles I am unfamiliar with or would not appreciate constantly, but are extraordinarily refreshing (and a great reminder that I don’t have a corner on any kind of truth) in small doses.
What I have been thinking more and more about is that I wish the entire congregation of individual churches (as opposed to the “leadership”) could have relationships with the people from other churches. Yes – separate so you can learn better. But don’t stay separated. Because there is more to life than learning (and decent music). And it is not nearly enough for pastors of churches to get together once a month, or for a couple of small group program directors to get together and brainstorm. It is all of the people who make up the church and all of the people who should “partner” with each other.
So what would that mean in the city of Orlando? The first idea I came up with is that maybe there could be some interaction at the small group level. Small groups are nearly every American church’s strategy for forming Christ-centered relationships between its members. They are already used to being intentional about relationships with each other, so maybe they’re the best entity to start intentional relationships with another church. I was thinking maybe a small group could contact the director of groups at another church and ask him/her to put them in contact with a group who’d like to go with them to do a specific service project. Or would like to come over for dinner to share their stories. Or something.
Summit Church does something I think is fantastic that they call “measured in stories.” What that generally looks like is a video about a person in the congregation and what they are doing now and how they’ve been changed (the premise being that you can only measure the success of your church by whether people are being changed, not by numbers like the amount of people who attend – incidentally, while I think that is one of the best indicators of church health I’ve ever heard of, I don’t think the amount of growth happening in a church should be used to prove that the leadership is or is not doing right – but that’s a whole nother idea). Anyway, what I started out to say, was maybe a church could do a video like that about someone who goes to another church. Or maybe instead of having a “building fund,” or no, wait, I mean a “capital campaign fund,” for your own church’s building project, you do it for another church. And then go to the first service in their new building.
Anyway. It’s not like there’s nobody doing these things already. But I’d like to see more of it. Particularly in my own life. Over and out.
Kailey:
(to be added tonight...)
