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Brickell Release – Individual_Family

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Three or four days ago I came across this article

http://goo.gl/0Xxl9 from David Fitch.

This line captured my attention:

“mega churches continuing to grow, consolidating what is left of the Christendom populations, providing a traditional church services to the shrinking masses of already existing Christians and lapsed Christians coming back into the fold,”

Consolidating what is left of the Christendom populations…and it was like the light went on; I had a Eureka! moment; it all became clear; I had an epiphany; the door was opened. However you would like to define it, Fitch put words to what I have been trying to understand, maybe for a couple of years now.

Mega-Churches and I would argue satellite and video venues as well continue to consolidate people…

1) Don’t see yet that something’s wrong in the way we are “being” the church as compared to what Jesus did and what the first Christians did.

2) See that’s something is wrong but the risk to change is to great

3) Who can’t see church any other way or have a clue that it can be different (this is all they know)

4) Who are simply consumers and don’t understand they were called to be so much more.

I have struggled with this; I mean really beat my head against the wall on this one.  Why oh why would people that I know…intelligent, sincere people hang in and participate in systems that are so far from Jesus?

My friend Dan pointed out one day that he knows so many people, as do I who…”Are just tired of the way we do church. It’s just not like the early church. We need to do what Jesus & them did and quite wasting our time on all the buildings, events & stuff…YADA, YADA, YADA.” And I would say that maybe 1 in 10 ever does anything about it. Most just switch churches. We have seen this over & over in our community. At least 10 different couples have come in, been a  part for a short while & left to go back to a consumer friendly church (usually a new one). The committment and risks that it takes to birth a new kind of church are just too hard. It’s much easier to walk in, get the matching name tag/arm band combo, leave the kid there, get your coffe, but that book you’ve wanted and slide into your stadium seat for the sing-a-long concert that’s really a worship experience…not a concert.

There is a lot of talk about change but very few people who step out & do it. It’s just really really hard to do.

Fitch then points out that smaller churches of less than 200 are dying as well. Statistically we know that mid-sized and mainline churches are getting squeezed as well so in reality what we see is growth at the mega church end (included here are the child churches that they birth) and in the fresh expressions of the church that are popping up everywhere. Like…

*house churches (not that this is new…but they are on the rise and are becoming much more common. I know of two in my neighborhood)

*hybrid communities like ours (weekend worship still happens but it is not the main thing. In our community we have more people gather for meals than we do for our weekend worship gathering.)

*true/different/fresh expressions of the church.

So…

1) Does the 1st point (Fitch’s quote) seem true or false to you?

2) What do you see happening around you? What “new” kinds of churches/communities are out there?

3) Do you know people or maybe you have been there…you know that something isn’t right; it needs to change; but once they or you tried a new community that was really trying to dislocate from the institutional ideas of church, it just didn’t “meet enough needs?”

The kingdom is advancing; the church is changing; will we be willing to change our expectations and “wants” to allow communities of Jesus followers to be what God intended for them to be.

“I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church,

to the observance of a holy Lent,
by self-examination and repentance;
by prayer, fasting, and self-denial;
and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.”

-Book of Common Prayer, p.265

This invitation is the doorway into Lent. Upon first hearing this invitation it is easy to think, “Well Lent is here again and these are the things I am supposed to do to get through Lent.” But what if it is not just about getting through Lent? Maybe the real question is, “How will Lent get through to me?”

(From Michael Marsh @ Interrupting the Silence)
We would love for you to join our Community for this Holy Lent…

As we Begin the Journey – Ash Wednesday Gathering, 6pm @ Spring Hill UMC

As we read & pray together – Lent Books will be available at tonight’s gathering and on the TC@SH site & The Element. You can also follow along with the daily readings/prayers by following us on Twitter.

As we help serve together with Blood:Water Mission through 40 Days of Water.