When we get it wrong

So there is a perfect storm brewing in me theologically. A combination of life experiences, books I'm reading and Scripture I've been digging into.

I wonder if the very methods we are using as 'Church' are antithetical to the very Message we are to be conveying to the world.

Sunday morning is a bunch of people gathering. They gather to sing praise (and it better be the songs I like...and if the words are on the screen, they better not be botched)...and hear a message (and the speaker better grab my attention, keep it, and spur me on to deeper devotion).

And our whole strategy as 'Church' is to get others to realize their need for God and get them to come to our gathering. We tell our faithful, the guy at the factory, the girl in the school, the coffee shop owner, the student, the construction worker and golf pro that they should get to church and if they are really effective, they should get others to church too. Then it is up to the preacher and the worship leaders to reach each one. The whole strategy is to get them to come and see Christ.

It seems like the better strategy would be to take Message, entrust it to the factory guy and the school teacher and the student and the coffee shop owner and the construction worker and the golf pro and send them into their spheres of influence with the challenge of making the Message tangible to those around them.

This strategy can't help but multiply the movement. Reached people Reach people.

Because let's face it, there are not log jams of people trying to get into most churches on Sunday mornings...(there just aren't enough dynamic, lovable, charismatic talking-heads to sustain the former model.) It is not an indictment on preachers/leaders as much as it is on the faulty system that makes the whole process dependant on their skills and competencies.

Come and See Jesus vs. Go and Be Jesus.

Pretty big paradigm shift...and this is not to say that the Sunday morning gathering that has been central to the Christian faith for so long is irrelevant now...Its to suggest that the focus of this gathering is changing...it's not the place where people are discipled and changed...its the place where those who are being discipled and changed come to celebrate the transformation.

Is your faith centered around an hour or two on Sunday, or around your work place and your family 24/7?