1 Corinthians 12:18 - But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
One of the tough things I’m learning about in full time ministry is the complete lack of unity that exists between churches in the body of Christ. Let me explain.
The biggest disappointment in all this is the response that I get from other local churches here in town. I probably asked 12 larger churches in town if we could rent out their facility at any time during the week for our youth services. Not a single church was open to helping us get our youth ministry started. Most churches took a message and never called back. Others said they were just too bust to deal with anything like that. A couple highlights included the Lutheran pastor telling me they only help other Lutherans and
another pastor telling me they would never have drums and guitars for worship in their building.
Here’s some good questions for us all – Who’s kingdom are we building anyway? Is the ministry all about us and the way we do things? Do we believe that we’re the only church that God wants to use to touch our city? Can we honestly care for every soul in our city or could we use some help from other churches?
Imagine if your left hand got caught under a heavy object but your right hand refused to lift the object off. Or if you were about to get a haircut (which was going to make your head look a whole lot better) but your legs refused (our of jealousy) to cooperate and did everything they could to resist getting in that chair.
These images well describe the condition of the Body of Christ. I’m asking God to brand into my heart and spirit Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17:11. Don’t forget that we need every bible believing, Jesus preaching church in the city to reach all the unsaved. There has never been a shortage of souls to win. I can understand having differences in doctrines and philosophies – but I’m determined at every chance I get to
consider one another in order to stir up love and good works
We have a responsibility to help each other and encourage one another in our pursuit of the call of God. The Body of Christ is not to be in competition with one another – but rather partnership. May God continue to conform His bride in the spotless one He’s returning for.
So here’s the big prayer request in light of our need for a building to meet in. We’re in communication with a movie theatre here in town that shows movies for $2. They supposed to be coming up with a proposal to rent out one of their theatres one night a week for our youth service. This would be a fantastic location – it’s right off the freeway, everyone knows where it is, and it’s a great place to invite youth to come to. We know there are students that won’t step foot in a church but might come check out what’s going on in a movie theatre.
Here’s some pictures of the place.
Pray with us that God would grant us favor with the corporation and that we would be able to work out an agreement with them to rent their facility. Our kickoff is coming up soon!!!
Question of the Week:
What was the last good partnership experience you had with someone from another church or stream of churches than your own?
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6 comments:
It's so funny that you post this frustration today. Sandy and I went to a wedding at a church that has just recently finished installing a park on the back lot of their property. It is in a neighborhood and directly across the street from houses. The park is probably a half acre (half football field) and has a little walking path, benches, a basketball court, and a small field. A very nice wooden sign posted in front of the park says, "Property of -------- Church. No trespassing; Violators will be prosecuted; city ordinance #543" I would be lying if I told you I'm not tempted to go kick that sign down tonight. I had a similar experience the other night on a prayer walk with a different church property. AGGGGHHHHH!! I'll stop here for now and answer your question after I'm done wrapping presents for the fam.
Okay, to answer your question:
First; in high school we were able to rent out a movie theater room which was highly successful in the growth of our group. There was also a church that met there on sunday mornings. I say thumbs up to your endeavor and will commit to pray this week for that.
*Also in high school, my nazarene youth group would do a retreat with a youth group that was roughly 100 miles away from us. The youth pastors were good friends and it worked out well for all of us. I don't remember if they were nazo's or not.
*Sometimes during the Christmas season would invite the southern baptist gospel choir to come and sing at our nazarene church and we all loved it and talked about the need for more unity.
*I have been very impressed here in San Diego with the mutual respect shared by City Church (daughter church of Kirkland's) and Christian City Church (daughter church of Phil Pringle). Though they are similar in name, they have no connection in polity. However, I have experienced both churches praise one another as Sandy and I visit one or the other. City Church has purchased a building and believes they will soon outgrow it. They are already talking of having a desire to sell to another church (it's more of a corporate building than a church building). Christian City Church is young enough that it will not purchase a building for a few years (probably). I'm am excited to see how that goes.
*Also, in K.C. there was an old church that, in it's prime, was hoppin and built a great facility. Centuries later it was completely paid off, but the congregation had dwindled to a couple dozen. They chose to GIVE their multimillion dollar building to a new, young church that was growing by leaps and bounds. They were in the same denomination, but I was still impressed.
*Church of The Harvest in Olathe (my launch pad) would often invite other churches to our activities. We would also invite surrounding pastors to preach. We were very clear on not recruiting, but actively promoting the fellowship of the Church. We even once sent some of our young adult leaders to help an understaffed baptist lock-in. (we were nondenom., charismatic)
*One time my nazarene dad took his 5-6th grade s.s. class to a catholic church just to gain a broader perspective of church traditions.
*In college we had a class in which pastors from other denominations would come and explain their approach to corporate worship. (What's funny is that the guy I unknowingly invited was a pentecostal who came in and screamed at us for an hour and told us we were all going to hell if we didn't speak in tongues. Let's just say he was a bit unbalanced in his theology. I was gone that day of class, speaking at an FCA meeting. Lunch sure was fun when a bunch of religion majors come busting in asking what in the world I had done... oops :)
*I onced roomed with a nazarene who was a baptist-church youth pastor and a catholic future priest who was getting a nazarene Bible degree, while I was beginning to exercise charismatic beliefs. We all kinda left it alone...
Okay, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel, that's all I got
Okay, so just one day after being home I stopped in at good old B&N. To back track, I'd met with an old friend the previous night who was afraid of what was going to happen to her after she died. So, we set up a time to have coffee together and answer some of those questions that had been haunting her. Well, I saw Pastor Russ from Oasis at B&N. He was preparing for the Christmas service and he explained to me what He was going to be teaching. I'll tell you more about it in person, but it was awesome and I got to tell him about my friend and how I'm going to use a lot of what he said to help answer her questions. It was a great day! (oh, and Nico and I ran into Keri and Charlene at Fred Meyers!)
I'm sure Family Church can start to break down those barriers standing with some of the other churches in town. And we'll be there soon enough to help!
I worked with a guy named Josh from Oasis to lead the Bible study at COCC, and it was great. We probably had four or five different churches represented there at that Bible study, and there was a sense of unity, but always some differing styles of doing things, and some tension sometimes. it's super hard to be unified! I loved your post because I've been feeling really unified with the people and vision of Westside lately, but I've been having a hard time with other churches. I just see how well things are going at my church, and am like, why doesn't everyone do it this way? I know that it takes many different kinds of churches to make up the body of Christ, so why is it that some seem "better" than others? I'm still figuring this out, as you can tell. Thanks for the food for thought! Luv ya.
Dude, you guys can totally use 180 on monday's or friday's if you want. I realize it's a bit of a commute but we have a sound system and we REALLY like the drums. Think about it...seriously. No wait, I have a better idea. We could simulcast a picture of 180 without anyone in it and then you would "feel" like you were right there! Even if you were outside in the biting Nampa winter cold! On second thought, I'll just pray that you find a nice place over there.
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