What is church

Recently I was speaking with a good friend about his dream to plant a church/ministry in New York city, since his dream is seemingly the same as mine just opposite coasts, I was more apt to listen closely. He made the statement that he wanted to plant a church in the city that truly lived out the church 6 days a week, and on the 7th day he didn't care where they went to worship.

I must admit that this idea resonates deep in my heart of hearts but at first this idea struck me as strange, why would you plant a church with no visible numbers to report? Why would you submit yourself to such hardwork and arduous labor without being able to write a prayer letter detailing the size of your services or the size of your sanctuary? With no tangible results how will anyone know what is going on? This is the mindset of the church today, a mindset that must change if the kingdom is to be increased.

It was with this mindset that caused me to turn away from ministry just a few short years ago. The american church was no longer a 24/7 lifestyle but rather a Sunday morning gathering of the merging of "ME" generations. Church was no longer the body of Christ, going, doing, and showing the love of Christ, but rather an establishment of self centered egotists that needs to feel better about themselves. The church was no longer our ministry but our business.

My last stop before coming to World Help was as Youth Pastor of a prominent church in VA. I came in with the idea of making a difference, of encouraging todays youth in the love of Jesus. But that all changed one day when the pastor called me into his office and sat me down to tell me that this "ministry" must be run as a business. Believing the lie of corporate america the church had sunken to an all time low. We were more concerned with the bottom line, than who was living under the bridge. As a young pastor I took this in stride. I conformed to that mindset and built a very large youth group. But ultimately I failed, as did the pastor and the majority of the church because we failed to be the church the other 6 days of the week.

It was with this great defeat that I resigned my position. Not only as youth pastor, but vowing to never serve in the church again. How can I serve Jesus when he is a nothing more than a business. When did Jesus become a corporation?

Then I thought back to Matthew 21 and realized that Jesus himself fought against the incorporation of the church. At that moment something changed inside that has since become a fire that cannot be put out. We as true friends of Jesus must in every way, shape, and form be the church daily regardless of where we attend on Sunday. The church, the true church, the body of Christ must be more concerned with the hurting and sick than we are with the size of building or the beauty of the baptistry. We must focus more attention to the homeless than the price tag on our sound equipment. How can we knowingly refuse to feed someone so that we can increase the already to loud decibel level on stage? How can we turn away a single mother of four simply because we don't agree with her lifestyle? How can we say to the person that is living in sin that we have achieved this higher level of spiritual righteousness that excludes them from our company? Especially when we have no concept of true Christlike love.

I have friends around the country that are living as the true church. They are loving in ways that I cannot comprehend. They are doing things that the church for so long has stayed away from for self righteous reasoning.

It is because of these friends that my mind, more importantly my heart, has changed. Being the church is more important than a Sunday morning service. Sure we'll probably have one in Portland. Yes I hope it grows. But my prayer is that our leadership never get bigger than Jesus. That we never let our human greed defeat our desire to meet human need. And that we look nothing like the "money changers" of old, but rather the True church of Jesus Christ.

What would it look like if we all took a step back from the business of ministry and allowed ourselves to see the need of humanity? What would it look like if we took a step back from our own self righteousness and saw our own need for Christ's love? I dare say the church would not look like corporate america.

The days of Corporate Church are coming to an end, let us together engage culture as Friends of Jesus rather than hiding in our temples as Pharisees.