Posts Tagged "new ideas about church"

Rethinking Church

Posted by Elle on Apr 13, 2012 | 0 comments

What would happen if we didn’t have any existing parameters for what “church” meant to us? What if we completely re-designed it from scratch? What if sat down and decided: This is what a church should look like. And then we included EVERYONE!

These are things I have been thinking about quite a bit lately and the more imaginative I get, the more pumped I get. As you might know- I’m a Christian. Which to me means that God and I have a good thing going on and I’m tight with his son too. But this is in NO WAY exclusive of the relationships that others have to the Divine. In the bible- the first mention of the word “Church” is in Matthew 16 when Jesus tells Peter that he wants to build his church on him. Now “church” in the bible actually comes from the Greek meaning: Children of God. If we look at Church the way that God sees it, maybe that is a start for how we can design one.

Picture this:

Every Sunday morning you head for bike ride or run and stop by the local park. There might be a coffee truck or food truck parked on the curb where everyone can stop to grab breakfast before starting their day. You visit with your friends, people play with their dogs, park their strollers. One of the group stands up, says hi to everyone and then speaks for 20-30 minutes about the beauty of God in our lives. People can come and go as they please, wear whatever they like, and breathe in the sunny day while laying in the grass. Just a casual environment, the great outdoors, and other like-minded individuals getting to spend some time together.

What do you think? I think this is only the beginning. I think there can be such a thing as a church with no walls or denominations. A church that meets the needs of our everyday lives. A church that can come to the rescue of everyone who has ever said that church is too boring, too formal, too long, or too stuffy. A church where you can continue being who you are and doing what you want to do. A place where you can listen to different people speak each week and find some spiritual fulfillment in your everyday lives.

To me, this sounds like church, and I church I would go to. If this sounds like something you are interested in too, maybe its a start! Until then, there are plenty of people like me out there to visit and have fun with. Fellowship with each other is where it all begins!

Hope you all had a good Easter?