As a young pastor, I drove by a thought-provoking sentence posted on the message board of a local church. “This is the building where the Riverside Baptist Church meets.” That simple message articulated what I already felt in my heart and knew in my mind: The church is not a building - it’s a people! From my 1980’s perspective, that fundamental idea seemed like a revolutionary concept.
What was revolutionary in 1980 has become the new norm in 2010. Church leaders today have embraced the ‘church is not a building’ concept with vigor. I’m aware of churches that meet at coffee houses, funeral parlors and roller skating rinks. Almost every new church starts in a rented or leased space of some kind and many existing churches are exploring how they might use their buildings to generate revenue to support ministry. Clearly, we don’t confuse the church with the building anymore. We get it. The church is not a building - it’s a people!
But my personal observation has been that some leaders in 2010 make another mistake in a different direction. When church planters share their ministry plans with me, all too often it looks like they are under the impression that the church is a worship service. Period. Of course no leader would come right out and say that. But when you look at how they plan to spend their time, the bulk of their daily activities revolve around planning an outstanding worship experience or designing excellent marketing strategies to attract people to an outstanding worship experience. Worship teams, sounds systems, state of the art projection equipment, marketing plans and a great Web site all focused on getting folks into the seats.
The church is not a building and it is not just a worship service…it is a called out people. Our AG founding leaders got it right when they labeled our local congregations ‘assemblies’. In my humble opinion, that is the best English translation of the Greek word ‘ekklesia,’ which roughly means a group of citizens of a local community called out together for a purpose. Our purpose is to be with God on His Mission. His Mission involves way more than enjoying the 9:00 am contemporary service at the Hilltop Theater once a week. Being with God on His Mission means we are called to make disciples and walk together with other disciples, tangibly allowing the Gospel to transform us and our communities 24/7
Being on a Mission with God certainly involves worship, but the robust discipleship journey will include acts of service, ongoing personal spiritual formation, transformational connections with others and a continual posture of being sent by God to manifest His love and power. Local churches and leaders who put all of their energy and funding into one weekly service will likely end up cultivating anemic disciples who think the church only exists to make sure they are happy and well fed. That is hard to reconcile with Christ’s characterization of discipleship - “take up your cross daily and follow me.”
Today is a great day to run your ministry plan through the grid of discipleship as defined by Jesus. How will the church you lead develop a community where disciples pick up their cross daily and follow Christ? How are you helping people serve sinners and saints? How are you cultivating spiritual maturity? How are you facilitating redemptive connections? How are disciples being sent? I’m pretty sure the answer will involve more than an outstanding worship service once a week.
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I agree. The Worship service is just the tip of the iceberg. Relationships, discipleship, home groups, service, outreach, witness, care and concern for the family “doing life together” - is the rest. The Worship service is biblical, and should be like a family reunion each week, but it should be worship and fellowship, not - come see the show.
Just a side note on ‘”the church is not the building.” Some people seem to be “anti” church building these days. I am not “for” spending huge amounts of money on a building to try to “impress” people, But, we have a brand new functional building, and pay less on our monthly mortgage than we could possibly pay for rent somewhere, and not have a building tailored to meet ministry needs.
Getting back to your point, I agree. Less show, more relationship, more family, all week, more care and concern - for those inside and outside the fellowship, that is the real church.
Great observation Mike. I agree Buildings and worship services are tools that help us be the church. We just need to keep first things first!
While I agree in essence with what you have stated Steve, my concern is that your blog may leave some planters/pastors feeling that the weekend worship service does not need to be given such a high priority and not as much time should be given to its planning and execution. If that impression was left with anyone I want to state that the weekend worship services should be the senior pastor’s and church planter’s number one priority.
All of the other aspects of church and church life spring from the weekend service. It is the main event. It is the primary door through which the majority of visitors and guests will experience the church and be plugged into the other aspects of ministry. Rev. Ed Young Jr. made this comment at a seminar I attended three years ago, “It’s the weekend, stupid. As goes the weekend, so goes the church. 70% of the game for the senior pastor is weekend preparation.”
As a former church planter, who planted a successful rural church and continues to pastor it, the weekend is key. It is where we connect with the unchurched and the religiously lost. It is the door through which most of the hurting and broken enter. It is because of the weekend worship service that most people make their decisions to commit, to plug in and to support financially. If they will become a part of our weekend worship service, from there we can direct them into, to use your words, the robust discipleship journey (which) will include acts of service, ongoing personal spiritual formation, transformational connections with others and a continual posture of being sent by God to manifest His love and power.
While the church is not the building and the weekend worship service is not the only thing, let’s not lose the perspective that for the senior pastor/leader/planter it must be given the highest priority for the success of the church and the plant. I totally agree with Ed Young, as goes the weekend, so goes the church.
Rick,
I completely agree with you if a church planter is planting an attractional church model. You stated, “if that impression was left with anyone I want to state that the weekend worship services should be the senior pastor’s and church planter’s number one priority.” This is exactly true for a church that is centered on a worship service being their attraction into the church. And as you stated, Ed Young, is very attractional based, in fact I would venture to say that he is the ultimate attractional church.
However, we have so many different church plants out there. House Churches to more missional.
Here is my personal problem with the complete attractional model that I see a lot of church’s jumping into. Church Planting isn’t about planting a new worship service. Church Plants should exist because people are coming to know Jesus and they are now a community. Paul went into each new city to convert people to following Jesus, from these new converts the community (church) developed. When I see church planters that I train at these bootcamps focus on an attractional model, usually what I’m seeing is them trying to have BETTER worship services and ministries for CHRISTIANS in that church. Burger King vs. McDonalds. Coke vs. Pepsi. I believe church plants should not be about creating a better consumer based product, but building a community of believers because people are coming to know Jesus. We were never called to plant churches. We were called to make disciples.
Ed Young may say, “it’s about the weekend stupid.” I would say that if you do only that you will end up realizing you have build wide with no depth. Willowcreek understands this now after their reveal study.
Anyways, those are just my thoughts.
Great conversation Rick and Trinity. The key is making disciples. Period.
Steve,
Your comments are confirmation to what God has been really dealing with me about lately. I am constantly being brought back to Acts 2:42 these days. It is God, His word and the intimate fellowship of believers that we must remain focused on.I was preaching in a church Sunday and just before the service began the pastor shared with me the struggles they are now in (to the point of conflict in the church) over funds to complete a new facility (Notice I did not call it a church). As I preached God took over and had me encourage the people with this. “Forget about the building. Get busy about what God has you here for…reaching the lost. God will take care of the building. He will give you the building when you give him the people to fill it with.” Let me tell you there was Joy in that place yesterday when they got refocused. Steve, I believe what you shared is what God is speaking to the heart of His church today. Thanks for sharing and confirming to me the diretion that God is leading us.
I also agree with the heart of this blog. Worship in a planned service is really only one aspect of the believer’s worship. Our life should emit worship…worship is an expression of a devotion which is planted deep within a believer’s heart. Living out the love of Christ and showing forth His might and power through transformational acts of kindness is worship. A song that came out in the past year or so says something like “don’t give me something to believe in, it needs to be like falling in love” (very paraphrased) Gatherings (assemblies) create the structure for a church, but relationship with Jesus makes the Church.
Many ‘church plants’ never begin until they believe they are ready for the weekend worship service. How unfortunate. Serve the community, love the lost, disciple the found, support families, mentor teens, clean streets, etc…
– you don’t need a building or worship team or paid staff to do ANY of these things.
This is not just my opinion, it’s my testimony. We have started 2 churches in Detroit (so far) with this model.
Do we now have weekend worship services now? yes. One in a former bar & nightclub and one in a current bar & nightclub. But, our real work takes place in our community and all of the other places where discipleship occurs.
We’ve got an assignment from God called the Great Commission and the Power to accomplish the job through the H.S. — let’s do this!
At our church we strive to be both missional and attractional. In no way do I feel that we are the best at it but I do confidently say, “They both can be done at one time”. A matter of fact they work well together. With that said (side note), we met for 2 years pre-launch in my living room totally living and breathing Acts 2:42. Today, we are highly missional daily (in the work place, coffee shops, community, etc) and highly attractional on the weekend. We need both. I have seen the extremes of both camps- highly attractional or highly missional. If you are not attractional- they will not come back. If you are not missional-we are contrary to everything Jesus Christ was and is. Our Sunday morning experience has become a wide open door for the un-churched but could never replace the relationships built in our daily activities of missional/community life.
The ultimate goal is that they become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ- disciples. Like it or not- the Church will always have Christians and disciples. Christians barely getting into Heaven by the seat of their pants and disciples fully devoted followers. As pastors we need to embrace and love all of them. It is only when these new converts begin to serve and give- that they truly feel and do belong to what we refer to as the “Church”.
Many new planters/pastors have begun to understand/embrace church planting but we are far from clearly understanding and living discipleship and servant leadership. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples”…
I vote with Joeseph. Well said Mr. Garza.
Deus abençoe a todos em nome de jesus
Rick, you stated, “While the church is not the building and the weekend worship service is not the only thing, let’s not lose the perspective that for the senior pastor/leader/planter it must be given the highest priority for the success of the church and the plant.”
I believe ALL pastors should put PRAYER and the PREACHING of the WORD as the “highest priority. THAT is what Jesus did,…He did not have Christ Tomlin or Hillsong United opening for Him! All He did was PRAY prior to His preaching and then PREACH the WORD!
So, twist Ed Young’s comments, “As goes the prayer and preaching, so goes the church!”
ps I find ANYONE who calls names, like “stupid” or “moron” to be very arrogant and disregard ANY of their writings.
I agree with Steve and Trinity and those lining up behind them. Where did Jesus model or command a “worship service” as a component of attracting people to Himself? There is no evidence of a “worship set” in the NT record of the early church. I personally love the worship “experience” in Spirit led large group church gatherings, but that mode of worship expression does not seem to be presented in Scripture as instrumental in attracting the lost and convincing them to “count the cost” and “take up their cross [not a decorative item] and follow” Jesus - the One who offers life in exchange for death to self. So what does the NT record - Jesus’ words, the historical record, and the apostles’ writings - give us as essential components of making disciples out of rebels?
I believe All Pastors and Church Leaders devote their time to biblical effective prayer, they should be leading this crucial ministry and not the lay people. They must be leading their members in street evangelism, not just sitting at their offices giving the command to evangelize and make disciples. Evangelism is a work given to every believer and how wonderful it is to see our church leaders take the lead…….
Then comes Sunday where we all celebrate the presence of God, yet not forgetting the focus is still the crucified, risen and glorified Christ, not how many successful concerts their worship team had…..this is my opinion….
Regards and God bless