Yesterday I attended Catalyst Church for my weekly worship experience. I wrote a little about my personal experience in yesterday’s recap. Today I wanted to say a little more, not specifically about Catalyst, but about emerging trends in the church. Recently Catalyst moved locations and now rent space on Sunday mornings from Regal Cinemas in Stow/Hudson. They hold services in one of the theaters and set up a children’s environment across the hall. One of the best things they’ve done in this move is branded the experience as “Church at the Movies,” getting people excited about the “unusual” location.
“Our giant screen is our 21st century stained glass window.”
-Jonathan Herron, lead pastor, Catalyst Church
The question I have is just how “unusual” is this? Last weekend while in Charlotte I had the opportunity to attend worship at Elevation Church. This is a young church plant that, after 3 years, offers 8 Sunday worship experiences accross 3 locations around the city. Two of those locations are high school auditoriums and the third is a community theater. As you look around you start to see this more and more. Mobile churches renting space or meeting regularly in facilities without steeples and ornate doors and windows.
What’s the point? Here you have churches that don’t have anything you “need” to be a church. They don’t have a building, they don’t have a sanctuary, they don’t have a stained glass window, they don’t have a basketball team, they don’t have a knitting ministry, they don’t have a church van…but they do have the gospel, and people are hearing about Jesus, and lives are being changed. I’m not bashing churches that have all these things. My church has every single one and more (except the church van). My point is that we need to continue to be clear on our mission, which I heard stated possibly more clearly than I ever have this past weekend.
“Our goal is not to get to heaven. Our goal is to make heaven crowded.”
-Jonathan Herron
It’s important for us to remember that sometimes we need to give up the tireless pursuit of what we “need” to be a church so that we can actually be The Church.
What do you see as the biggest difference between church and Church?
I love how you put this! It is sooo true! There are a lot of churches these days without the “traditional” church elements that a lot of people thought we needed. I think sometimes we can get so caught up in what the place that we meet is supposed to be like that we forget that the building isn’t the church at all. We are the church so if we are moving constantly why can’t we have non permanent places of worship? I mean sure the places are used every Sunday and don’t move around, but you get what I mean they aren’t owned by the “church” they are just a place to gather and praise God. I personally find it an exciting way to do things. It almost somewhat reminds me of how the early church was. They didn’t have a building they owned and designated as the church. Well, they might have, but I don’t remember reading about it unless you count the temple.
“Our goal is not to get to heaven. Our goal is to make heaven crowded.”
What a great quote. I truly believe that that is what church should be about. We should definitely be proclaiming the name of Jesus but I am not so sure that we are putting enough emphasis, at least in my life, of bringing others to Christ. Yesterday at my church, the pastor talked the whole time about winning others over for Christ. Bringing them to church so that they can hear the best message in all the world.
Thanks for this post. It was great to hear a different perspective. I am currently reading a book titled ‘Emerging Churches’ that is tackling this same subject.
Typically I prefer a church that isn’t “traditional” (in the building/church van/every-activity-under-the-sun) because I believe its easy to get caught up in all those activities instead of getting caught up in if the Spirit of God is there. But that doesn’t mean that always happens. Sometimes places like movie theaters can be less threatening for people who have never stepped foot into a church.
Ok, can I quote yet another book I’ve read. LOL. A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren. Gives such a great perspective on how we, as the Church, needs to change along with the changing culture. Not that we need to become like the world…. but sometimes we need to change how we think and how we do things.
No matter what building you meet in as a church, if you are real, passionate, and welcome the holy spirit…. there, people will find God. Obviously.
But here’s kind of the funny thing: nearly every church I know of that doesn’t have its own building is working toward its own building. For instance, Elevation has raised a bajillion dollars towards that goal and another church I interviewed for meets at a YMCA but has already purchased the land for their church. It seems to me that most non-church building churches aren’t that way by choice, but rather it’s the nature of their seedling state.
It would be interesting to bring in the idea of home churches though. One of my friends was reading some book about how there is a huge flight across America from church building churches into home churches and I didn’t quite believe him until I finally met someone in a home church. Now, that’s an interesting move. You end up in very tightly knit communities, but most of the time you lack any sort of ordained leader. There’s no expenses for running the church or paying staff, except for paying for the DVD of the pastor playing on the TV during worship.
Life is all about trade-offs and the community center/school/theater v. home v. church building is definitely proof of that in my mind.
A bajillion dollars? really?
The house church model brings us back into the type of community we see in the early church. This is why you see so many churches now putting so much emphasis on small groups. You get the relationship development but they are not out there on their own.
My argument is not that churches shouldn’t have a building. On the contrary I think being a mobile church brings far too many limitations. My argument is more closely tied to a church’s mission. We should not let the pursuit of the things we need get in the way of spreading the gospel.
It might actually be closer to eleventy billion, I’m not sure.
And is it things we want or things we need? It’s funny how often the two often get mixed up. And having lived through a church renovation in the last year, they definitely do
My previous church was without their own building for like 10+ years. By choice (I believe). They just bought the Clev Hts athletic center though. Funny thing is, it still has the same feel as meeting in a school building, so I don’t really think anything has changed about the atmosphere. Plus, who doesn’t want racquetball courts in their church?!
I think the home churches are becoming more popular….. not sure how I feel about that. Probably not my thing…. Some of my friends in Clev Hts go to one. We DO need more small community of believer meet-ups though! But I guess that’s called “small groups”, huh?
Right on. Small groups are quickly becoming the key to building relationship and community. A lot of churches could benefit greatly from stronger small group ministries (and more raquetball courts!).
AMEN for raquetball.
Sometimes I think having a great building or complex keeps us from going out the doors into the community to be The Church. We are so comfortable in our big buildings we don’t leave this safe haven to get out in the community. Just a thought – what do you think?
“If you build it, they will come.” I’ve seen too many churches where this is their evangelism strategy.
We have a very nice facility and try very hard to be a service to the community by opening our doors for local concerts, blood drives, theater performances, and programs for the public schools. This is one of my favorite things about my church.
That being said, I find it very easy to use a building for missions, and much more difficult to use it for evangelism. This is why relational evangelism is still the best way to share the gospel and this is why when the bible describes the church it means people, not buildings.
I just realized I am commenting out of order. Ugh.
Anyway, this might be a little off topic. But I kind of wished I could’ve experienced the early church in Acts. I’d love to live in community like that!!
K. Sloan – I think a lot of people just come to church on Sundays b/c they “should”. Anything over and above that is “extra”. Which sometimes becomes “rarely”.
Plus, sometimes I wonder if in churches, when there are so many options to serve outside the walls of our church, is that overwhelming? Which ones do I serve on? But if there were ONE focus, ONE activity, would that be more manageable? And how does that look and work out? Plus, nowadays people commit to too much (outside of church) so committing to one more thing in their minds might not be feasible. Church and serving our community (versus serving ourselves) typically comes last on our scale of what we commit to. Right?
(big surprise to all… I don’t have the answers to that)