Tag: church (Page 32 of 35)

20/80 No More!

October 25, 2021 / / 1 Comment

It’s no secret that I’m a pastor. I serve in a medium sized church in a semi rural, becoming semi suburban part of central Ohio. Yeah I know that’s pretty vague but eh location really isn’t the point – the people are! I’ve done this whole ministry gig for going on 20 years now and there’s been a constant for me for my entire ministry career. It’s something referred to as the 20/80 rule. It says that 20% of the people do 80% of the work. And that normally holds true in churches to be sure, but also in other organizations and nonprofits as well. .

One of the things we’ve been called to do as pastors, and Christians for that matter, is to disciple people. Now discipleship is far more than just teaching someone the truths of Jesus. It’s about teaching those truths and leading them to obedience. You see, we’re called to raise people up and release them for ministry. We create programs where people get involved and learn and grow, but it’s so very hard to get many people to really connect beyond a Sunday morning worship time. But that has changed drastically in the past 12 months at this little miracle of a church in semi-rural central Ohio.

I really can’t put my finger on what happened or when it happened or why it happened but I can tell you that it happened!

As I look back on the past 7+ years of ministry life at Living Word, one thing has been evident – none of the good that’s happening is on me. I was able to step into a role where a very strong and very intentional Biblical foundation had been laid. My predecessor, Pastor Jim, took the utmost care to teach, lead and care for the people of this little church with everything he had. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it everyday til I die I am only as good as the great men upon whose shoulders I stand in ministry.

But I can’t just say “something happened” and leave it at that. There had to be a shift, a change or a strategy that has proven somewhat beneficial and led to this different approach to life inside this expression of the body of Christ. So here’s my feeble attempt at putting a finger on what precipitated this massive cultural shift.

Keep the main thing the main thing.

Again to Pastor Jim’s credit, the main thing was never in question. Neither he nor I are about the business of getting tangled in the weeds of politics, civic matters or worldly pursuits. Neither of us are/were perfect, so of course we slip but the focus – the thing that always matters and that we continue to come back to over and over again is the one thing that really matters – Jesus.

One thing that I firmly believe has led to this shift in participation and involvement is that we keep the goal clearly in front of people. We’re pressing in to what it means to be like Jesus. Our goal isn’t church growth or launching programs. Our goal is to help people see Jesus in the everyday moments of life and to walk with them along the path of being transformed into his image for the sake of others. And when we see it, we try to call it out or celebrate it (more on that one later).

A serious call to simple action

Another thing that has led to a greater involvement of those connected with Living Word is that we unapologetically keep the call to action in front of everyone. It’s taken a while for some to get it and we have to keep bringing it up from time to time but the call is serious. Without each of us living out the truths of Scripture, someone may never hear the goodness of God’s grace for them. The simple action part is essential as well. We’ve broken so many parts of ministry life into smaller chunks that are more manageable and don’t require lifelong commitments. It’s simple really. What can you do? What do you enjoy doing that can bring glory to God? How has God uniquely equipped you to fulfill the Great Commission? It’s really a matter of high exceptions, short term commitments, and helping people write their story of faith.

Celebrate Wins

If you do anything with a team of people you have to be sure to celebrate the victory of your team. Even if you just say thank you to those who went above and beyond to help pull off an event or a ministry program, just do something. Recognize the efforts of your team. The point is to build up momentum as you gather together for a common purpose.

Do NOT Lower the Bar

Finally the thing that I think really matters to the shift we’ve seen is to keep expectations high. We live in a society where we like to lower expectations to help people feel better about minimal accomplishments, but this is not the way of Jesus. So keep expectations high. Tell people what you want from them and for them. The point of being part of a church is to help, support, and provide for the group moving forward. Even the part of the worship service that recognizes new members joining a local church asks in part do you intend to support the work of the church with your time, talents and treasures? The idea is that church membership is like being part of a body. Each part needs to show up to do their part. No single part is not needed. No part is of lesser value. No part of the body or of the church can say they don’t need to pull their weight. Part of the secret that we’ve been able to tap into is that of continually seeking ways for all parts of the body to do something in the body. It’s part of our discipleship pathway to move worship attenders from observation to full on ownership of the mission of God in this place.

We’re all in it together so let’s join in to make the world recognize what and who the church is because without you it just won’t be the same!

Do we need a new HOW?

September 23, 2021 / / 0 Comments

It’s no secret that what we do is important, but equally important at times is how we approach those things we hold near and dear. We’ve probably all heard the old adage that says doing the same thing the same way expecting different results is insanity. Well I think that applies to a lot of different scenarios in life.

One thing I have learned from the last 18 months is that some people care more about how they do things than what they actually do! Now it’s no secret that I serve as a pastor of a central Ohio church, so admittedly my examples will be slanted in that direction. But I know from conversations with those outside the church leadership realm, that some of these correlation apply across cultural settings.

I think something interesting happened when the initial wave of closures and shuttering of activities started. Many churches and small businesses realized that they had relied on one method of doing things. Predominantly, churches had a singular method of distributing their content. Come to a centralized location. Receive what we give. Go home and live it out.

This worked for decades in North America and even in pockets around the world. But take away the church’s ability to meet together and the whole system goes out the window. I’m not saying we shouldn’t meet together! Actually I think meeting together is very beneficial, if not essential. But is it the only way?

From what I’ve seen and experienced it appears many churches in mainline Christianity have made the structure of how we do church more important than the gospel the church is to proclaim. In other words, doing church has become more important than being the church.

Think about the operational system of the church. Many churches are formed around the principle of gathering. If the church gathers it is functioning properly, then it will be gathering in a large assembly. But can the church operate without mass gatherings? What are some alternatives to the church assembling in one location?

Now before we get all early church critical here. The early church, according to the book of Acts, tells us that they gathered as an assembly and they gathering in homes. It wasn’t one or the other, but it was both. However it seems in our 21st Century church tradition we worship the idea of gathering more than letting the gathering fuel our worship.

Think about a restaurant or fast food joint for a minute. If you have only dine in seating, and you can’t gather to sit inside, how are you going to stay in business? This very problem caused many small businesses to shutter and eventually go out of business last year. It had similar effects to some churches who just couldn’t pivot fast enough to provide connecting points beyond the Sunday morning in person worship gathering.

What happens when the church can’t gather like we expect it to gather?

I think we need to start looking at how we can do and be the church in the midst of rolling black outs of meeting together. Analysts have said this is not the last shut down we’ll experience. And if we believe the teachings of the Bible to be true, we’ll see things getting harder and harder for the church as time goes on. So we need to value highly our gathering times, not neglecting to gather by any means. But we also need to find creative ways to gather, get the message out, stay in touch with one another. We need to develop deep relationships with those around us. We need to look out for one another and be proactive in establishing emergency response plans where we take care of those in our community.

There is no hard and fast, silver bullet approach to navigating crisis. There’s no perfect solution to a disruption but we can see clearly that putting all of our eggs in one basket of how we do what we do, didn’t work so well. Look at strategies for staying connected and even reaching beyond your current circle to those a little farther off who are in need of the good news you have to share.

The point is your methods aren’t bad. But perhaps we need to look at additional methods to bolster the overall impact of the message we have to give.

No Cost Christianity?

September 2, 2021 / / 0 Comments
There's no such thing as no cost discipleship.

Is there such a thing as no cost Christianity? I’m starting to think that much of what we call Christianity in our culture today is something significantly less than Christianity. As I sit to write this post, I’m in a coffee shop in central Ohio. I’m listening to music through the shop’s sound system but that’s just for ambiance. The real thing is the conversations around me. I’m curious, intrigued, and slightly appalled at the same time.

The guys sitting beside me are talking openly about Jesus which is pretty cool stuff, but there is some complaining going on. They’re talking about their church and the uncomfortable nature of how the pandemic was handled. Now I’m not getting into details here but I want us to think for a minute about the things that cause us to complain.

We complain about the temperature in the building or the volume of the music. We draw lines in the sand over preaching style and what people wear to worship services. We’ve become massively divided around issues of capacity, distancing and mask usage. And I fear this is only going to get worse. And while I have an opinion about all of these matters, none of it really matters. These are not “cost of Christianity” kind of issues.

The bible says that we’re supposed to take up our cross and follow Jesus. That doesn’t suffer some slight inconvenience on a Sunday to be in worship for an hour. It’s not putting up with a subpar praise team or out of tune choir. Taking up our cross is more. Much more.

Another conversation I’m listening to at the moment is about the situation in Afghanistan. There are American helicopters lifting Christians above Kabul with a noose around their necks and hanging them just for being Christians. The forces that have overtaken the city are going door to door confiscating phones and if you’re caught with a Bible app or even pages of a Bible in your home, you’re shot on sight.

There is an underground church in these parts of the world that are being told to deny Jesus and turn from their faith or die. They’re told that they are next to be tortured to death. In our American context, these ideas are foreign, but this is a real cost.

When we talk abut the cost of following Jesus, I think we’ve grown so comfortable with our views that when we hear something we don’t like or see someone we don’t care for or aren’t being given what we want or are asked to do something we no longer want to do – we just move to get a change of scenery or throw up our hands and say there’s nothing we can do or blame someone else.

Where’s the cost of discipleship? Where’s the not my will be yours be done? Where’s the focus on what really matters and the willingness to be uncomfortable for the sake of being right where Jesus wants us to be?

I do not wish what’s happening in Afghanistan on anyone…ever! But we need to stop thinking that getting up on Sunday to go to worship is a sacrifice. Comfortable Christians in 2021 in America need a wake up call that our brothers and sisters around the world are being tortured just for believing. They’re literally dying to go to church while we’re making excuses for why we just don’t have time to go. They’re cherishing their bibles even though it will cost them their lives, while we let ours gather dust on the end table in our living room.

Friends we need to get real for a minute. We need to realize that we have it easy. Maybe today we will step out just a little and take a small risk for the kingdom. What would happen if we loved Jesus the way we claim to love him? How would our lives be different if we actually loved our neighbors as ourselves? We just might stand out in a crowd. We just might know a little more what a cost of following Jesus really is.

A needed reform

July 27, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Reform seems to be the latest craze in our culture. There have been cries from every corner of society calling for a reform of how we do what we do. We’ve largely been doing life the same way for years, decades even! It seems we’ve been living by the old adage that states if it isn’t broke don’t fix it. But what happens when the system is broken and we don’t realize it? What happens when we’ve missed the boat and don’t even know that we’re standing on a bridge that doesn’t really have a purpose anymore?

Now I’m not going to tackle all of the societal things that need fixing, because that would be pointless, too time consuming, and honestly likely divisive. But I would like to take a look at one part of culture and be honest about where some change is needed and why. Some of you are going to agree and others will disagree, and frankly that’s your right.

My grandfather used to say that our world is going to hell in a hand basket and his self prescribed fix was to go back to a better time. He thought that our best times were behind us. He thought that the previous way of doing things was the only way to do things. It seems that many in our world have a very similar approach. We either cling to the way they were or the way they are and aren’t willing to see life for what it could be.

This post is intended to spur some thought and conversation with you and those around you about who we are and who we’re called to be. Because I truly believe that by and large we are not living the lives we’ve been called to live.

In my estimation the institutional church is doing this very thing – clinging to a way of doing things that is largely ineffective because it was designed for a different time. Now before you get your pants in a bunch and go all he’s a heretic on me, read on and I’ll try to explain.

What I’m NOT saying

I know that some of you have formed your opinions already because you heard something that I didn’t say, so let me clear that one up right now. I did NOT say we need to change the message. The message is the only thing we know is right. If we’re teaching the message of the bible, then we’re standing on solid footing. I’m not saying that we need to bail on all of our traditions and deny our past. That would be just as dangerous as trying to erase history because we don’t like what it said or represented. We’ll just end up falling back into old habits if we do that.

The Problem

So the problem, as I see it, is that we’re clinging to systems and ways of doing things that fit a time that no longer exists. We’re living as though the Blue Laws still exist. For those of you unaware of Blue Laws, it was when many activities and businesses were not allowed to be opened on Sundays. Basically, church was the only thing to do on Sundays which is why nearly all of church activities happen on Sundays even to this day!

But that’s just not the case anymore. Hardly anything is closed on Sundays, yet Sunday is the day when most of our work and service happens in the church. What’s worse is the church is grinding her teeth complaining that culture is moving away from what we have to offer. We grumble that we need to go back to a simpler time when Sundays were sacred. What if Sunday isn’t the problem or the answer? What if this whole idea of a day of rest isn’t tied to Sunday or even Saturday but tied to whatever day you can find to rest on a regular basis?

It’s not just the day of the week that we struggle with either. We have largely been clinging to methods of learning and teaching that are quite old school. Much of our Sunday programming revolves around lecturing at a learner. But is this the best approach? Is this even a biblical approach?

Finally, our focus has moved from mission to maintenance. I’m part of a church body that in my mind has a great foundation of belief. I willingly ascribe to this identity of what I believe and how it impacts my understanding of life. But what happens when the confessional identity becomes the point over the mission of the kingdom? What happens when making people look like us becomes more important that helping people see the reality of who Jesus is? What happens when, as a church body, we’re more concerned with butts in seats in our membership classes than lives transformed by the gospel as individuals connect with one another on mission in their daily lives?

What happens? Simple – the institution gets off course and loses ground. The message gets disregarded because it doesn’t match up to the new perceived mission of self preservation.

I have to be honest here I’m getting a bit frustrated as I look into the world and hear well meaning Christians talk about the church as if the church is there to serve her members. Since when is the church about those on the inside? Since when did the church lose her identity like this? If you’re part of a church and you’re concerned more about what you gain from it personally than you are taking the truths learned into the world and sharing them those around you, then perhaps a reformation is needed in you as well.

The Reformation that happened in the 1500s was about reforming the people’s mindset of being part of the church. The reformation that’s needed today is about reforming the church’s mindset on what it means to be on mission. If you wnat to know what the chruch should be about, then read Jesus’ own words. I came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10) Then in John 14 Jesus says, the things I do you also shall do. If we’re supposed to be about what Jesus was about, and Jesus was about seeking those far from God and introducing them to God, then why do we care more about introducing them to church than to Jesus?

The church doesn’t save people. The church SHOULD be pointing people to the only source of salvation, namely Jesus. While there is only one way to the Father and that’s through Jesus, the institutional church that’s bent on membership more than mission isn’t the only way to Jesus.

It’s time for a reformation. Not in someone else. Not in someone else’s church tradition. The reformation needs to start in you and in me.

I Don’t Want Normal!

April 21, 2021 / / 0 Comments

There are some buzz words from 2020 that are still lingering around almost a year later. I’m going to pick on two of these in a quick series over the next couple of days. We’ve heard words and phrases like: Unprecedented, pandemic, this is how you really love someone, and one of my least favorite New Normal.

What in the world is new normal all about anyway? And why would I want that?

The issue with new normal that drives me nuts is that we are a culture built on comforts. We want the comfort of consistency and predictability. The striving for a new normal really is our way of trying to go back to a time when things went as we wanted. We don’t want a new normal because that invovles change. What we want is the old normal on a new day. Let’s just be honest.

If you’re one of those people who’ve been using this phrase, then I likely offended you a little. And that’s ok it’s not personal. I like things to operate in a consistent pattern as well. I mean I have my own normal that I do everyday. I wake up, get dressed, head to the gym, home to shower, fire up the coffee, consume copious amounts of coffee, eat breakfast… You get the point. We all have a routine and that routine is what we think normal looks like. But routine and normal are not necessarily the same thing.

A routine is all about rhythm while normal is about controlling a situation and wanting your rhythm to be uninterrupted. I work in an industry, ok church isn’t really an industry but I didn’t know a better word. But I work in a field where normal or predictability and stability are really critical. We like our firm foundations and set structures. I mean many of us use systems that have been in place since the 1950s!

Now there’s nothing wrong with tradition but if you’re doing life the same way today that you did 70, 50, 30, heck even 10 years ago then you’re probably missing something really important! Part of my job is to serve as a pastor of a local church in central Ohio. The other part of my job on a very part time basis is to work for the larger organization that supports the local churches. So I get to see both sides of the spectrum. And what I’m seeing a lot of these days is a longing for days of old and calling it a new normal.

So many of our ways of doing things stopped being effective when the massive technology boom hit our culture more than a decade ago. Yet thousands of churches across the country were caught off guard when we had to swiftly pivot and launch some form of an online presence. We have focused so heavily on the in person gatherings that all we want is to get back to normal, but what if that isn’t the point?

Ok so don’t go all panties in a wad on me. Give me a minute. Why do we value in person large gatherings so much anyway? If we’re honest, then we’ll admit that what we measure as effective ministry is boards, budgets and butts. And we can’t do any of those well if we’re not in person in our buildings in large settings. We think that a good ministry is based on how many people are back in worship. Sure that’s a measure but is is the best measure of effectiveness?

The bible doesn’t talk about how many people are in a worship place. They talk about how many go out from that worship changed and live a different kind of life. The bible doesn’t tell us how many listened to Paul in the book of Acts but they do say that over 5000 were added to their numbers that day. Added to their numbers was NOT a phrase that meant church membership as a passive experience. It meant they were changed, transformed. They left that gathering as a totally different kind of person who saw Jesus and the power of the resurrection in all they did.

I firmly believe that for the church to be who we’re called to be we need to start focusing on changes lives and not how do we reopen our doors on Sunday or how good is our live stream. I really don’t think Jesus is going to stand at those pearly gates when we die and ask how well our online worship was or how many people came to church the Sunday after Easter.

So if the leaders want to serve the churches well and if the churches want to serve the people well, we need to all be focusing on what does life change look like. How can we help provide a clear path toward a more Christ centered life? How can we encourage and hold one another accountable to live a different kind of life as someone who gets the resurrection? We need to worry less about larger gatherings in our vastly underused sanctuaries and start focusing on connecting lives across generations and geographic locations.

If we as an Lutheran Church body, an Ohio District or a local congregation want to experience something truly abnormal then we need to be about the things the book of Acts describes. We need to value home gatherings, large and small group assemblies, spiritual growth through the spiritual disciplines. We need to grow deep in our faith and relationships not wide in surface level connections.

I do NOT want a new normal or an old normal on a new day because the Bible calls me to be abnormal. And I’d love to chat more with you about how we can live an abnormal kind of life together wherever you are.

Do you really know what love means?

April 21, 2021 / / 0 Comments

One of my least favorite words in teh human language is the word love. I can’t stand it. People throw it around like it’s just another word. We say we love our spouse then we love pizza and then we love our truck or sports team or friend. But do we really love those things? Is it love or like?

The cool thing about other languages is that they have multiple words that can be used in place of love that help you better understand what someone is talking about. This week I talked about the different words for love. We discussed family or relational love, intimate love, friend love, and a love we all want to have but honestly can’t and that’s unconditional or limitless love.

Now before I send you off to check out the talk on the different kinds of love it’s important to understand why this was our focus. You see there are some who will make you question love. In our relationships people tend to say one thing and do a different thing which makes love go out of focus to put it mildly.

But there are some churches and chruch traditions that will call into question God’s love for you based on what’s happening in the world, how good or not good of a person you are, or how you practice your Jesus life by going to church and stuff like that. So let me be very clear –

If you are part of a church tradition that causes you to question God’s love for you, then you are not in a Biblical church.

There’s no more simple way to put it. God is the one who loves you unconditionally. God is the one who cares for you without boundaries. His love is not based on your love for him or your practicing your faith life. God doesn’t need you to be a good person for him to love you. He just does. You can believe it or not but that doesn’t change his love either. This is so very important and foundational to our understanding of who God is and how we live our lives. Check out the video below.

Or here’s just the audio.

We Are Not One

January 12, 2021 / / 0 Comments

It’s the truth isn’t it. We’ve become so divided that it’s hard to even see other people who think differently in a positive light. We pick one another apart and choose to focus on the things that separate us rather than the ones that unite us.

So what do we do about it? How do we come together when we’re so far apart?

This week in our message we focus on the reality of division in the world but also in the church. The message may be hard to hear. It wasn’t easy to preach. The intent of the message below isn’t to condemn anyone. Rather the intent is that of self reflection on the part I play in the troubles around me.

Perhaps you have the same thoughts? Perhaps you can some of the same struggles in how you see the world and how you react to those around you?

Give the message a listen and then honestly look at what is God calling you to do differently as a means to unify His church?

Is This Significant?

November 11, 2020 / / 0 Comments
Pisces: misunderstood genius! | Neon signs, Neon words, Neon quotes

What a year 2020 has become! I don’t know if anyone could have predicted the dumpster fire that this year has turned out to be. It sure doesn’t seem like anything is as it should be right now. But is any of this significant?

Over the past few days I’ve been looking back on what all has occurred throughout this monumental and earth shifting year. One thing that seems to keep coming back over and over again in my mind is one of the restrictions that many of our cities and states have implemented. Heck even the CDC has said this.

If you remember back to April and May of this year perhaps you’ll recall that we were all told to limit our gatherings to no more than 10 people. I think the reasoning was to limit the potential for spread of Covid and to make it easier to track back who all you’ve been with recently. At least that’s what I have understood from it all, and I didn’t think twice about it.

But recently I’ve heard a few different references to the number 10 and how it applies to the church and it’s got me thinking…is this significant? Is there a misunderstood genius behind all of this?

Now I’m not going to go all numerology on you or anything like that but let’s look at the history of the number 10 and why it might be significant here. In the Bible and in ancient Jewish tradition, the people were to come together to establish a synagogue or gathering of worshippers in a localized place. Well, enter what might be the significant part…

You had to have a minimum of, yep you guessed it, 10 people to constitute a synagogue. So what in the world might this mean?

Some might say that this is some demonic force trying to prevent God’s people from gathering in a mass numbers. While this could be? I’m not really sure that I buy that one. I don’t buy it because we’re still able to meet, albeit virtually but we’re still able to gather in many informal settings and the word is still able to be preached. Could the Devil be up to something? Of course he is! When isn’t he? But I think there might be another, and potentially more transforming thing happening here.

The ten mandate is still the case for some people. Much of the country has excluded places of worship from this mandate, but it does still apply in various locations to this day. But the number limitation holds for gatherings of people for many other purposes too. Enter the conspiracy theory portion of this post – don’t worry this is a positive conspiracy theory if that’s such a thing?

What if God was in control all along? Yeah I know he is but stick with me here. What if God was taking this whole pandemic craziness thing and using it as a way to allow some of our churches to stay within the guidelines while still doing, being and even growing the church?

Think about it – you can’t come to the church either because it’s not allowed based on this rule or because you’re just not comfortable in groups that large. But are you able and willing to be in a smaller group with a more controlled atmosphere? Could you gather and form your own grouping of say 10 people?

Ten doesn’t seem like that many, but God even said that for the sake of 10 faithful he would have delivered all of Sodom and Gomorrah. Whoa there’s that number again!

Could God be up to something? Are you unable to get back in your in-person worship space due to restrictions or comfort level? Are you willing to be one of 10? I think this is massively significant and something we need to be taking full advantage of in this weird and wild ride we call 2020. Want to be a group of 10…hit me up and we’ll see how we can resource you.

Who would have thought that something as simple as the number 10 could actually help?

Ok friends those are today’s random ramblings.

What The World Needs Now

November 10, 2020 / / 0 Comments

This world is a hot mess! I don’t really know how else to say it. People are fighting. Accusations are flying all over the place. Everyone things that their way the is the best way. We want things to get better and honestly many think that better is tied to a policy or person. But that’s not what’s going to make things better.

This week we baled on a message series to address the matters in our world. But not quite how you might think. While the issues in our nation are very much politically driven and we’re trying to find the right person to offer the right policy to fix what we feel is wrong, we have a short sighted view of the real problem.

The more time and effort we spend on short term, quick fixes the more short duration fixes we’ll discover – if we discover a fix at all. Specific people and policies are not what this world needs.

This world needs those who call themselves believers in Jesus to actually live like believers in Jesus. The world needs the church to be the church and or Christians to start living what they are claiming to be true. The world doesn’t need more love or acceptance or tolerance. The world needs forgiveness, healing and some hard truths spoken.

Some won’t like the message. Some will. The point is not to please everyone. The point is what’s needed isn’t always the thing that’s wanted. Sometimes the most needed thing is the least desired thing.

Church With No Walls

October 26, 2020 / / 0 Comments

What would it look like if the church lost its walls? What would it look like if there was no boundary holding the church back? What woudl happen if one day God just knocked down our walls of fear and separation and released us into the world? Well…welcome to 2020!

The current reality of the church is that we have become a church with no walls! God took our love for building and comfort for meeting spaces and brought that to an abrupt end. I don’t need to remind anyone about all of the disruption to normal life this year has brought. But what if God is up to something?

When we were no longer able to go through our regular Sunday morning routines, we felt a little discombobulated. When being face to face with our church friends was no longer possible, we were thrown off and didn’t know what to do. When we no longer were allowed to be in our buildings or see our friends’ faces, we lost a little hope. But what if God was making us into a church with no walls?

The start of the church in Acts looked a lot like what we’re seeing right now. Well minus masks and distance and technology. But I hope you get the point. The church didn’t have buildings or meeting spaces. They didn’t have set times of day to meet. They were fluid. They were flexible. They were everywhere, because they had a realization that we’ve forgotten.

God built his church to be a church with no walls. How are you going to live as part of a church with no walls? What will that look like for your time of worship? How will your fellowship look different?

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