Are We The Church?

I spent the better part of today at my church, The Woods, watching a simulcast of this year’s Leadership Summit hosted by Willow Creek Community Church. I had a lot of take-aways and challenging thoughts as I walked out of the auditorium this evening and have decided to take a little break from the Gospel of John while I sort through those thoughts here. I figured you all wouldn’t mind. I hope you weigh in with your thoughts too. Your comments always help me and challenge my thought process.

Let me start this post with a confession: I have a lot of unresolved “church” issues. Do I love church? Of course I do. But there has been a longing in me for years that I just can’t let go of. Sometimes I worry that we spend too much time worrying about whether someone or some place is emergent, missional, or traditional, or whatever that we miss the point. We need to worry about whether or not we are being the church. I have been waiting all of my evangelical life (16 years) praying that the time would come when I would truly see the church being the church. And I’ll be honest, my glimpses of true, biblical church service have been few and far between. So, when Bill Hybels opened this year’s Leadership Summit by saying that churches need to return to the Acts 2 description of service, I thought, “This is gonna be good.” I fully anticipated that Bill would “let ‘em have it.” What I wasn’t prepared for was the fact that I was one of “them” and boy did I get it.

During the talks two speakers/pastors gave two descriptions of very different church services at their respective churches. Both Bill Hybels and Harvey Carey talked about deconstructing the order of worship in order to fill a need. I had a strong response to both. Hybels talked about blurring the lines of the church service and extending the opportunities for those in attendance to have needs met through ministry. He shared a keen awareness of the pain he sees in the congregation and described the prayer opportunities and creative ministries that are now a part of their regular Sunday services. As someone who has a strong response to worship, I especially loved the idea of having vocalists and musicians play music over people (I would love that). He stressed the urgent need to “pour strength” into the congregation during the services in order to help them through a difficult week.

Then Harvey Carey took the platform. If you’ve never heard him speak well, you’re in for a treat. Download a sermon on itunes and prepare to be moved. Anyway, his challenge was also for the church to get up out of the pews and take action. To do something. Anything. He then described how he does Sunday service at Citadel of Faith here in Detroit. I loved it. Fifteen minutes of preaching, then taking the congregation out of their seats and onto the streets of their local community to serve. They use their time together to meet the needs of the community. Everything is looking outward toward what God is calling them to do with the hope and belief that God will meet their needs when they are meeting the needs of others through service.

So, this was my punch in the gut. I listened to what Hybels described and thought I would love the type of Sunday morning modifications he described. Why? Because they were all about me. And let’s face it, I really like when things are all about me. I would love more time for prayer, prayer for me. I would love more worship music, being sung over me. I would love more creative or expressive teaching elements, if they were filling me up. Do you see a pattern emerging? When Carey started taking about the Sunday service at Citadel being all about service, it humbled me. How much of what I experience on a Sunday morning is really about the Holy Spirit and how much is actually just an emotional response that makes me feel good? My guess is that it’s a bit of both. But I want desperately for it to become all about others. I desire to be more selfless.

Let’s face it, there is something to be said for both approaches. I do want to receive instruction from the Sunday sermon (which is part of what I love about The Woods), and I do want to be ministered to through worship (what I totally love about The Woods), and I want to see us being the church in the community all the time (something that makes me proud of The Woods). I want more of all of it. When we figure out how to balance it all we begin to fully realize the Acts 2:42-47 Church. When we begin to experience the Acts 2 Church, we begin to realize the power of God.

How do we, the church, get there? Is your church doing it? What are your thoughts?