Coolest Thing I’ve Ever Seen in Church
Every church talks about how the ministry they are doing is “not about building up our church” and that it’s about God’s Kingdom. For the most part that may be true but quite often (in my experience anyway) most churches usually function on their own and separate from other congregations in the same community. That it’s about God’s kingdom but we would never help that other church over there.
The church we’ve started getting established with after our transition out of ministry is a very small congregation. Over the past number of years it has gone through a couple of splits and had some very serious issues. It is a very small congregation at this point. The average Sunday attendance is probably in the 45-50 range.
They hired a new Senior Pastor about three years ago and hired a second full-time pastor at the beginning of this year. These two gentlemen are doing an incredible job leading the church forward, helping shape the vision and structure of the church and facilitating healing from the past.
One of the really cool things they are doing is creating and leading in opportunities for multiple congregations in the city to work together on a number of projects. Between partnering with other churches to host community meals or jumping at every chance to take part in city wide worship experiences, they are trying to cultivate the attitude of being one congregation within a larger church instead of trying to be the only church.
There is currently a new and very small church plant in the city that is home church based and run in a very needy area of the city. There is no denominational affiliation with our church but our church invited them to have a joint service. We shared our facilities, the sermon for the morning was a joint effort and then we all had lunch together as well. It was a great morning.
Now, here’s the really cool thing. Keep in mind we are a church of approximately 50 people with two full time staff. We have a building and all the costs that come with that so money is super tight. At the end of the service our pastor turns around and hands the other church’s pastor a cheque. My mouth hit the floor. The other pastor looked incredibly surprised and was quite overcome by the gesture.
I have no idea how much that cheque was for. To be honest it doesn’t matter. In all my years of church attendance I’ve never seen anything like that. I’ve heard how it’s not our church’s money and blah blah blah. I’ve seen churches send large amounts of money overseas or far away. But I have never seen a church give money to another local church just to bless them and help them in their ministry. To acknowledge that they have the potential to reach people that our church can’t and to help them do it rather than build up and protect our own group of people.
This simple act of showing (not saying) that it’s about advancing God’s kingdom by any means possible, even if it means supporting a neighbouring (or some people might say competing) church was one of the things that cemented my decision to get involved with this community.
Posted on November 24th, 2009 by admin
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