Perspective

I just had an interesting conversation with the owner of my favorite local coffee shop.  We were talking about a church plant that meets there once a month.  She said, "honestly, I don't know why you guys dont stick with what you got."  Several things come to mind.  First, she is not a church goer.  Her frame of mind is business, why do you need 80 churches when 5 will serve the area ie. if you overpopulate the market with coffee shops you cut into your available profit.  Her thinking was why go to the trouble of building new when you have the old. Second, she sees all churches as irrelevant.  Not just the old the new too.  Yes even yours with the great music, casual dress, and cool looking graphics.  Are we so busy making cool churches that we forget the reason we are working for those in the first place?  My large white mocha lets me speak into her life, not the video I just put together.  My grilled roast beef lets me ask her about her day not my dark rimmed glasses or my MacBook Pro.

The question becomes do we get so busy with the pulling off church that we forget the people we are doing this for.  My personal church philosophy is attractional missional or if you prefer missional attractional.  Yes, I think you can do both and do both well.  If we haven't effected the community why would they care about our lights or the fog machine?  I believe that we should give people the best experience they possibly can have at church because that honors God.  Creating environments where people come face to face with Jesus is a beautiful calling, but it doesn't mean we shirk the responsibility to love on a personal level.  I also believe if we don't do the messy work of speaking to people where they are at we will never get the Sunday morning opportunity.  This all points me to my next post about how to have those conversations.  The conversations where soft stones are needed and required.