Church Redefined

I moved to Colorado Springs about three and a half months ago to work as a church planter/missionary.  We just started meeting on Wednesdays which we are  calling our DNA formation phase.  We are spending the month of April unlearning church and last Wednesday I led our Wednesday Night gathering in the topic Church Redefined.  The following excerpt below are my notes from last Wednesday April 6th.

Church Redefined

The scriptures teach that, “where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18).  Without a vision, going to church can seem pointless and painful. Why are we here? Where are we going? What are we doing?

Introduction: The protestant reformation of 1517 brought about two very important positive changes to the church. First "the priesthood of all believers" which we means we don't have to go through a priest, pope, or pastor to get to God. Each and everyone of us have direct access to the throne of grace and God speak to everyone of us.  This is one of the principal reasons we facilitate discussions in our Wednesday gatherings because we believe God speaks to everyone of us.  Everyone of us has the ability to hear from God directly and share with others what He is saying to us.  Sometimes I find out that I learn more from a group member's interpretation of the bible verse or topic than the teaching pastor.  The second important positive change brought by the reformation is sola scriptura Latin for "by scripture alone".  This concedes the Bible as the main authority in matter of faith and practice.  It does not mean the bible is the only (sole) authority because we can find God revealed in reason, tradition, and personal experience but we must first begin with the scripture.  The bible is our first and primary source on all issues.  It's amazing how much of our theology, faith, and practice is based out of our church and religious traditions and not on scriptures.  So this brings me to our first discussion question.

Discussion: Define church? What is the purpose of  church and why do we do church? Come up with your best biblical definition of church (sola scriptura)? 

We are the Church - 1 Corinthians 3;16 “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” Colossians 1:27 “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The Universal Church – Christ is the head of the church and we the body.  Ephesians 5:23 "For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior." 1 Corinthians 12:27 "Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."

The Temple - The church is also a building. The bible records in Exodus the “tent of meeting”.  Then Solomon’s awesome temple, where the holy of hollies was located.   

But our focus for years has been on the temple, the building. For the sake of returning the church to it's true definition let us focus on the church as the movement of God.

The church started as a move of God beginning in Old Testament (the Garden of Eden) to the New Testament (God the Son incarnate).

When you strip down the institution of church, you are left with a movement.  24/7.  The movement of God is bigger than the four walls of the institution.

As we enter the post Christian era in our culture, we are experiencing a huge fallout in the church. As pastors and Christians we recognize the problem but typically ask the wrong question of how to fix.  We ask: How do we do church better? How can we grow the church better?  We implement small groups, contemporize the worship service, focus on customer service, try create a spiritual experience, become seeker-friendly, return the church to the basics, market our services, create a high-expectation member culture, or try to purify the church from bad doctrine?

·   I recently heard that 70% in Colorado Springs are unchurched, someone else told me 80%, just a few days ago I heard 85%

·   George Barna National Survey of church attendance. Most/Least churched state 1 (most) – 5 (least)

o   Colorado ranked = 4 

o   Denver, CO ranked 10^th in least churched city in the U.S.

o   El Paso county – One of the least churched counties in Colorado (Elpaso county is comprised mostly of Colorado Springs.  400,000 in CS, 600,000 in El Paso)

·   The harvest is ripe in Colorado Springs, but the laborers are few.  Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers

The Church as a Movement vs. the Church as an Institution

• Out of 144 times in the NT, there are only 2 times in the Gospel where church was mentioned. Matthew 16 and Matthew 18.
• Matthew 16:17 “You are Christ, the Son of the Ling God…on this rock, I will build my church”
• The original idea was a movement God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven
• Kingdom thinking – The entire gospel, Jesus teachings, parables was on God's kingdom on earth as it is heaven
•  Matthew 11:12 - From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing (breaking forth), and forceful men lay hold of it. 
• The Movement is the spirit of God (God in motion) at work to heal and to rescue. Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed"

Old Paradigm                 vs.    New Paradigm

Church as an Institution    vs.   Church as a Movement

Do church                        vs.   Be the church

Churchianity                     vs.   Christianity

Church growth                  vs.   Kingdom growth

Church movement             vs.   Kingdom movement

Focus on Church                vs.  Focus on Christ

Christianity is a movement as history of the Church proves.

Christology, Missiology, Ecclesiology

·   "Ology" from Greek means a branch of study or knowledge. “The study of.”  Christology is the study of the person and work of Christ.  Missiology is the study of the mission of God towards His people, while Ecclesiology is the study of the form and function of church

·   In Churchianity we typically begin with our Ecclesiology (doing church) and once that is established we plan our Missiology (reaching out).  Somewhere in our Missiology is our Christology.  Christ often takes the back seat.

·   In the Kingdom Movment paradigm: our Christology informs our missiology, which in turn determines our ecclesiology.

Missiology – Missio Dei (Mission of God-sending of God. John 3:16, Luke 19:19 for the son of man came..)

·   Theology of Mission is liberation.  In the Old Testament it is the exodus, liberation out Egypt.  In the New Testament it is freedom, liberation from sin.

·   God is a missionary God, it what makes us missionaries.  We are the sent one’s. In john Jesus said “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you”. John 20:21 (when Jesus appears to His disciples)

·   There is church because there is mission, not mission because of church. Church is participating in the mission of God

Discussion: If the broader meaning of church is a movement and not a building, what then is the purpose of the physical space church (institution)?

When Christ talks about building His church, He was speaking of the movement of the power of the gospel to transform lives and not the physical building.  However, there is a distinct purpose for the physical space of a church.  At theMovement Church we believe the church as an institution becomes a place we gather to…

1. A place to celebrate the movement of God corporately. (What God has been doing all week)
2. A place to celebrate the author of the movement (God) corporately
3. A place to fellowship and connect with others. (There is power in Christian community)
4. A place to equip, empower, encourage, and send the followers back out to live missionally and reach people for Christ.
5. A place to receive newborns, help them grow by equipping, empowering, and encouraging; then send the back out to live missionally and reach others for Christ which will then result in more newborns and the ministry cycle continues.

This diagram depicts the ministry cycle of the purpose of the church building

 Hebrews 10:25 "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching."