What Should Churches Be Being?

Please forgive the ungrammatical title.

I love sequels.  I’m sure that most of the movies that I want to see this year will have a sequel in a couple of years.  Today’s post is a sequel to yesterday’s.  If you remember, yesterday’s post was What Are Churches Doing.  I discussed what David Platt’s church has been doing that seems to have resulted in the book Radical.  I can’t argue with what Pastor Platt is leading his church to do.  They are simple things like prayer, attention to God’s word, the sacrifice of time and money and building a multiplying faith community.  I trust that Platt is following the Lord and leading his people in the direction that Christ wants them to go.  In fact, I just have faith and assume it at this point.

There is something else I hope is taking place.  I hope that besides what this church is “doing” is that they are “being”.  Stop and think about it for a minute.  We can do a lot of things.  We can “pray”.  We can read the Bible.  We can give some money and some time.  We can work hard to build our faith communities.  The problem is that all of it may not mean a thing.  We can get caught up in all of this “Doing for the Lord” and really miss what should be happening.  And that is “Being”.

Are our churches being what they should be?  Are we being who we should be?  Why ask this question?  Because the doing is pointless without the being.  If I am not being who I need to be, it really doesn’t matter what I do.  If my brothers and sisters are not being who they need to be, it doesn’t really matter what they do.

Yesterday I asked why churches aren’t doing what they should be doing?  Let me first say that they should not be copying Platt’s church anymore than they needed to copy Warren’s church a few years back or any other church.  Churches are doing a lot of things and churches are doing nothing.  Either way, churches are doing.  Why aren’t they doing what they should be doing?

The answer lies in that churches aren’t doing what they should be doing because they aren’t being what they should be.  I think it’s that simple.  Maybe they don’t know what they should be, but they still don’t know what they should be.  And that will start with you and me not being what we
should be.

What does it take for you and me to be what we should be?  What about churches?  I’ll let you explore that on your own for now.

 

 

What Should Churches Be Doing?

I haven’t read the book Radical yet.  It’s on my reading list and I expect that I won’t like it.  Why?  Because I expect that I will not be able to read it and remain comfortable.  However, I have an idea of what is going on in the book after reading an interview with the author, David Platt.  Follow this link and see what you think.

What this interview made me wonder is what are we are doing in our churches.  I’m not talking about my church.  Or your church.  Or someone else’s church.  I’m talking about all of our churches.  I talk to a lot of people who go to church.  I’m always interested in what is going on.  I come away wondering how many of us are playing games and how many churches are just really doing nothing to build God’s kingdom and Christ’s church (a small disclaimer: He is doing the work, I’m just a tool).  What are we doing in our churches?

Here is what Platt’s church is doing.  Other churches are picking up on it and adapting it to their situation and their community.  It is really simple, which is one of the things that is attractive about it.  Here is what Pastor Platt is leading his church to do:

1. Pray for the world
2. Read through the Bible
3. Sacrifice money for a specific purpose
4. Spend time in another context.
5. Commit their lives to a multiplying community

Some may scoff at this and say that is what their church should be doing anyway.  I agree.   But then why aren’t most of our churches doing these things?  That is perhaps the topic for another post.  But imagine if our churches were doing these things: Spending time in prayer and the word of God, giving money to help others, spending time in other areas, and building a growing community.

There is one common denominator in all five of these areas that Platt’s church is focusing.  They are looking outward rather than inward.  They are focusing on others and not themselves.

Folks, does that hit you as hard as it hits me?  What should churches be doing?  Why aren’t churches doing it? Stay tuned for part two.