be the church Archives - Page 6 of 7

In this post, Sam Riviera continues his series of posts on how to be the church in your community. He asks what it looks like to proclaim the Gospel to your neighbors.

Should the church proclaim the Gospel to the community? Does the church need to teach the Bible and even correct theology to the community? Are sermons and Bible studies the best way to do these things? Are they the only ways to proclaim the gospel?

We have discovered that there are other ways to proclaim the gospel to your neighbors.

How we Proclaim the Gospel

For example, today I spent the afternoon at my neighbor’s house, trimming, mowing grass, sweeping, watering and other similar chores. This neighbor has been out of town for several months, spending time with his family after the death of his wife.

Almost everyone on his block knows that my wife and I have been taking care of his house and yard while he is gone, and that we spent time with both of them on a regular basis after her cancer returned. Many of them wave as they pass us while we’re working, and some stop to talk.

Today at least a dozen neighbors drove or walked past as I worked. Several stopped to talk. I greeted them, and they asked me questions. They asked when our mutual friend is returning and how he is doing. They thanked me for helping him and keeping the house looking nice.

They asked about the Resurrection Mass for his wife after her death. They asked about the difference between Catholicism and Protestantism. We discussed communion and why Catholics are so careful with the bread and wine. (I explained that some of them believe it is the body and blood of Jesus.) They asked what I think the significance of communion is. (I answered that it reminds me that God became human, walked among us and loved us so much that He died for us on the cross.)

They asked about prayer, and prayers ascending to God. They asked about why God lets bad things happen to good people like our friend. They told me that when our friends needed someone, they believe God sent us to be there for them and wondered if God will do that for others. I discussed and commented on all of these issues, issues that the neighbors wanted to discuss. Some of these people are not followers of Jesus. One told me she is a Buddhist. Then she asked more questions about Jesus and Christianity.

The pastor of the last institutional church we attended told me he doubted that more than two or three people remember much of anything from his sermons one week later. On the other hand, these neighbors are watching and listening to our “sermons” of love, are remembering and are asking questions.

There are Many Ways to Proclaim the Gospel

There are many ways to proclaim the Gospel. The good news can be taught in many forms. Sermons can be shown as well as preached.

Somewhat accidentally we have discovered that people watch, listen to, remember and want to discuss “sermons” of love, “sermons” that indeed proclaim the Gospel.

We’ve also discovered that when they’re asking us questions, they’re interested in listening to the answers. Even people of other religions don’t flinch in the slightest when I say “communion reminds me that God became human as Jesus, walked among us, and died for us on a cross” and that “we are followers of Jesus.”

Do you have examples to share of sermons of love you have “preached” or have seen or heard “preached”? Can you think of ways to proclaim the Gospel using something other than just words?

Be the Church in Your Community

Want to be the church in your community but don't know? Here are some posts which not only explain what it means to be the church in your community, but also gives concrete, practical examples of what it looks like and how to be the church whatever you do and wherever you go. Remember, you ARE the church, and wherever you go, Jesus goes with you!

If you have questions about how to be the church in your community, please let us know in the comment sections below, and we will try to write a post which answers your question.

How to Be the Church In Your Community

By Jeremy Myers

26 Comments

It is popular today for people to say, “Don’t go to church; BE the church.” Everybody nods their heads at this, but few actually know what it means or how to truly “be the church.” With this post, Sam Riviera is starting a series of posts on how to be the church in your community. If you have ever wondered how to be the church in your community, you don’t want to miss a post. I will try to put one up each Monday for the next several weeks.

When most people in our culture think of church, what comes to mind?

Most people think of church as a location with buildings and property, or as an organization. When asked about our relationship with “church”, people usually ask us “Where do you go to church?”, “What church do you belong to?” or “Where is your church”?

While that understanding of church is common, my wife and I think of church as “those people who follow Jesus.” For some, that may include properties, buildings, programs, staff, and all the other accouterments that go with the organizational, institutional understanding of church. For some of us, it does not.

While we find it important to gather with other believers to share the common hope we have in Jesus, we do not limit that to the organizational, institutional scenario. We try to “be the church” in the community – every single day.

What Does It Look Like To “Be The Church In The Community”?

As we proceed through this series, I will give various examples of what this looks like for us and encourage you to share examples of what this looks like for you in your community. None of these examples are intended to be a model for you to follow. Instead, they are only instances that will not only help us to dream of what it looks like to be the church in our communities, but also help us to live out our calling to follow Jesus in our communities.

A Day in the Life of Being the Church

What does a typical day of “being the church in the community” look like for us? I doubt that there is such a thing for us as a typical day, but I will describe what it looked like for us today.

After spending the morning on jury duty, I came home and changed to go running. First, however, I watered plants and pulled weeds for a neighbor who is out of town. Then I talked with another neighbor whose wife recently left him. I invited him to our upcoming block party.

After running, I talked to another neighbor about some details for the upcoming block party that she is helping us organize, then greeted another neighbor, a widow who told me her phones had not worked for two days and she could not call anyone because she had also lost her cell phone. A couple of hours later, we had determined that there was a problem with her phone system, and had found her cell phone so she could report the problem with her landline to her landline provider.

After my wife came home from work we walked through our neighborhood before leaving for our evening class. We greeted several neighbors, then drove to class. After class, we discovered a backpack in the parking lot next to our car. We opened it (No, it didn’t explode) and found a driver’s license, credit card and other personal items for a person vacationing from out of the area. With the help of a friend who has a smart phone app that found a phone number for the address on the driver’s license, we reached the owner of the backpack and arranged for her to pick up her backpack.

It Takes Nothing Big to Be the Church.

As you can see, nothing about our day would be material for a book or a mini series. It would never be the sermon illustration for a mega-church sermon. Yet we see days like this as a somewhat typical day of being the church in the community.

To be the church, all we do is keep our eyes and ears open to the people around us, and try to show them love in whatever way we can.

In future posts we will look at various other ways we have sought to be the church in the community, will give examples of other people we know who are being the church in their communities, and will encourage you to give examples from your experience.

Be the Church in Your Community

If you have questions about how to be the church in your community, please let us know in the comment sections below, and we will try to write a post which answers your question.

How to Host a Halloween Party

By Sam Riviera

14 Comments

Every year on Halloween, rather than go down to a local church for a “Hallelujah Party” or hide out in our house with our lights turned off, we host a big Halloween party for our entire neighborhood. This is another practical way we have shared the love of Jesus with our neighbors. (To get more outreach ideas by email, enter your email address at the bottom of the post.)

The day before Halloween we hand out quarter sheets of orange paper in the neighborhood, inviting neighbors to join us at dusk.

Here are some of the things we do:

Build A Fire In The Driveway

On Halloween night, we take our iron chiminea and put it on the driveway. Then we build a fire, put a circle of chairs around it, and hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters on the driveway.

We have also started to invite the neighbors to join us.

Last year, we put out a big pot of chili. And of course, chili needs cornbread to go with it. And since the night can be chilly, we put out hot cider and hot chocolate. While we’re at it, we make a few batches of our Secret Recipe Cookies.

Pumpkins, Cats, and Candy

We fill a large bowl with candy bars. Sometimes there is a neighbor who will not get home from work until later in the evening, and she gives us a package of candy to hand out for her. In addition to the circle of chairs, we set up tables to hold the food and carved pumpkins, fiber-optic pumpkin heads, and cats.

People start showing up just after dusk. We light the fire and people gravitate to the food tables and the chairs around the fire. Several neighbors bring their bowls of candy to hand out to trick-or-treaters on our driveway instead of at their houses. A few also bring food and drinks to share.

Some people stay all evening. Some only stay for a short while, eating a bowl of chili, and chatting with friends and neighbors. Others came by with their children, greet a neighbor or two, grab a cookie or cup of hot cider, and continue accompanying their children on their trick-or-treating rounds.

Tricking Our Neighbors?

Did we do this so we could invite people to a Bible study, church service, or give them Christian literature? – Never! People can smell this sort of fake evangelism a mile off. Don’t befriend people just to invite them to church.

We do this so we can get to know our neighbors better, and so they can get to know each other better. We’re learning to love our neighbors like Jesus, and before we can do that, we have to get to know them.

And we do! Simply by spending time with, eating with them, and sharing life with them, we get to know them. Inevitably, we have conversations about life – including the meaning of life and its problems and where God is in all of that, hopes, needs and a variety of other issues. These all take place before, during, and after these events.

What A Great Neighborhood!

Do people want community? In our experience most people definitely do.

After last year’s Halloween party, several people at the Halloween party commented that their friends and relatives have said they wish they lived in our neighborhood, a neighborhood where people know each other and have neighborhood parties. One of our friends who does not live in the neighborhood commented this week “What a great neighborhood!”

People often say, “You need to go to church to be in community.” I say, “We are the church, in our community!”

We are the church as we get to know our neighbors, live in community with them, and show them the love of Jesus.

We’re learning to love our neighbors and help them in places where they need help, in places where we are able to help. We’re helping build community, a community where people know each other and care about each other, a community where people talk about inconsequential things as well as about really important things, including Jesus.

Do you want to share Jesus with your neighbors?

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What to Say when You Stop Attending Church

By Jeremy Myers

46 Comments

Are you one of the millions of people who have stopped “attending church” so that you can better follow Jesus into the world?

If so, you have probably noticed two things: First, you have rediscovered joy and excitement in your relationship with God and your life with Jesus. Each new day brings an expectation for what God will teach you that day, where Jesus will take you, and how you can show the love of God to people you interact with that day.

The second thing you have probably noticed, however, is that once you stopped attending church to start following Jesus outside the four walls of the church building, many of your church-attending friends and family think that you have abandoned Christ, have rejected the faith, and are falling away from God. Many do not understand how anyone can follow Jesus without attending church on Sunday morning.

This second experience can be quite frustrating. You have never felt closer to God, have never seen God more at work in your life, have never felt more freedom and joy in your interaction with neighbors and coworkers who need to see the love of Jesus, are seeing many answers to prayer, have a renewed interest and insight into Scripture, and are seeing God do amazing things in your life, and yet…. your church-going friends and family say that you are sinning by not sitting in a pew on Sunday morning to sing some songs and listen to a sermon.

I know that many of the readers of this blog have had this experience, and would love for you to share your stories in the comments below, with a special focus on how you have learned to respond with love, grace, and truth.

Below is one such response that a reader of this blog recently sent to me after it was sent to a member of her family who is concerned about her spiritual well-being since she has stopped attending church. This letter shows some of the frustration she feels at being judged for no longer attending church, but at the same time, reveals the love and joy that she experiences as a result of following Jesus into the world. I asked if I could share it, and was given permission. Some names and personal details have been removed.

I am sorry that it seems that I get angry at Christians. I want to tell you that I truly do not feel any hatred or anger toward them at all. I understand that going to church is the path they are on and it is a good one for them and that is great. I harbor no ill feelings toward them for their decision to include attending church as part of their life of following Jesus. I know that given the right circumstances going to “church” can be a good thing for many and I am glad those people have it. I would even tell someone that if they feel they need, to go ahead and attend a “church” group.

I want you to know that the anger that you sense I have for Christians is not toward you. I get frustrated when I feel like I must defend my life to my family. Though everyone else in my family attends church, I don’t ask you to defend that decision to me, and I am just asking for the same courtesy and respect. Perhaps I am misunderstanding you and it is not a defense that you are asking for. If that is the case I am sorry I got upset. I will try to see that you don’t want me to explain my life next time we talk. I think that anyone would get upset as I do if they felt that they were constantly having to defend their life to their loved ones. So if that is not what you are wanting me to do than I apologize for misunderstanding, and I will try to not do that anymore.

But if that is the case than I want to suggest something.

Please don’t let your heart ache for me. There have been many years in my life in which aching for me would have been appreciated. The last several years have certainly been hard as I have experienced the loss of friends, marriage struggles, depression, financial trouble, and so on. But I cannot tell you how incredibly blessed I feel right now. In the last year, God has given me three amazing friends, and my children have new friends as well. We have activities that are encouraging growth and skills, many of which help us grow mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We have a house over our head. We planted a garden and grew many things successfully. I get to stay home and school our children and they are doing well. We are all healthy. We are going camping again after a long time without it. Although I must fight monthly for my marriage, it seems to be getting better (all marriages need fighting for). We have a security that I have never had ever in my marriage. ALL THESE BLESSINGS ARE FROM GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is so a part of our lives i can’t imagine life without Him, it just wouldn’t exist. We prayed for all these things and in one way or another He has blessed us. It may not always look like we wanted it to look but if we try to find Him in our day it is not hard work, He is most certainly there. Sometimes He even gives us the grace to find him in the trials and hurts even while we are in them.

There certainly were plenty of times for your heart to ache for me, but honestly those were the times that I was attending church. The times I was lonely and ridiculed, with no friends at all. The times I was hurt because my husband was doing things that hurt me deeply and separated me from him. The times I was suffering depression with no one around to tell me it was OK or to help me. I could go on and on…

But now, I am more joyful than I have ever been, freer than I ever thought possible, looking for more ways to show Christ to the world than ever before. I am so thankful, I can’t get through a day without rejoicing. God has done that. God has given that to me. I know it won’t last forever.I know trials will come again and I hope that I can reflect on this time of joy to get through them, knowing He is there just as He is now.

I know also that this path is not for everyone. I know that. But this is the path for us. This way of living has set us free to be who God wants us to be, instead of some predetermined person with predetermined gifts to offer not because we want to but because it is expected of us. I feel more free to praise God now than ever before, because when I do, people don’t think I am just trying to get them to “come to church.” I finally am free to live my life the way I feel God intended ME to. Not everyone will be called to this way of following Jesus. Just as not everyone will be called to be single, or any other [fill in the blank] way of living. I have found my purpose for the life God has given me, and after struggling to find it for 37 years, I am glad to have it, and I guess I get a bit passionate about defending it. I know I don’t fit in the nice neat Christian box, but then, I never fit in any box nice and neatly, did I?

I would love it if you could just embrace the fact that after many years of “wandering” I feel like I have found myself and my role in God’s tapestry. Many of the things God has led me to in the last year have helped me discover who I am supposed to be. Some of these new friends, though they also do not “attend church” have helped changed my dream. I no longer feel called overseas to work in orphanages after my children grow up. I now feel called in a real big way to help the girls in America that have been sexually abused. I want to start a horse ranch for them where they can work, feel safe, learn, grow, and heal. For the first time in my life, I have a dream that I feel is attainable. I feel like I have a dream that matches me like a glove. I am so content and joyful and thankful right now that I honestly ache that you cannot see it.

I am glad that you care so much for me, I really do. But please set your heart at rest knowing that finally I feel like I have found what God has wanted to show me for years. All those times I didn’t fit in the boxes I was in, whether it be school, girl, church, sorority, athlete, etc. God was trying to tell me, “Hey, it’s OK. I never intended you to be those things.” I love the fact that I am finally OK with not fitting in. I am more than OK; I am thankful for it. That is God’s doing and I will praise Him for it, and try to follow Him into the next chapter of my life.

I love you so much, and I hope this helps you to understand that I am not angry. I am passionate about what God is doing in my life and it hurts when my loved ones don’t understand it. Please be happy for me.

If you are one of the millions of people who are no longer attending church but who nevertheless have a vibrant and growing relationship with Jesus and have seen your relationships with other people grow in amazing ways, please share your experience below.

If you would like, also share some tips and suggestions for how to respond to church-going friends and family who think that you have fallen away from the faith because you are no longer “attending church.”

Church is Badly Broken

By Jeremy Myers

26 Comments

This is a guest post from Glenn Hager.

Glenn writes at GlennHager.com and sees himself as an advocate for those who on the fringes of society and those challenge the way things are done. You may also connect with Glenn on Facebook or Twitter.

If you would like to write a Guest Post for the Till He Comes Blog, begin by reading the Guest Blogger Guidelines.

I have tried to distill my observations about the church over the last few years into a few bullet points, both to help myself understand what I have been through and to see if any of these conclusions resonate with anyone else.

Church is badly broken

Following Christ has wrongly become equated with supporting an organization that has to be feed with increased attendance, volunteers, and funding.

We have misrepresented Christ with our eagerness to call out sin in society while ignoring the sin of our unloving ways.

We are an insider organization that focuses on ourselves, except (or especially) when we try to get outsiders to come to our building and become like us.

We have been talkers and not doers who have had minimal impact on the lives and communities around us.

The Church is bleeding people like crazy.

Because they have been disappointed so many times, people distrust organizations and leaders.

When honest questions are unwelcomed or glibly rebutted, people become dissatisfied.

When so-called ministry is reduced to a performance and packaged programs, people feel like a consumer or cog in a machine.

Religious service attendance has slipped from 32% (1975) to 24% (2008). America’s third largest group now is “none,” somewhere between 16 and 20 percent of our population. In 1960, this group didn’t even register on the polls. It is projected that “nones” and adherents of other religions will outnumber Christians in the United States by 2042.

A lot of people who embrace Jesus are trying to “be the church” without any affiliation with an actual organization.

[Read more…]

How to Proclaim the Gospel to Your Neighbors

How we Proclaim the Gospel

There are Many Ways to Proclaim the Gospel

Be the Church in Your Community

How to Be the Church In Your Community

What Does It Look Like To “Be The Church In The Community”?

A Day in the Life of Being the Church

It Takes Nothing Big to Be the Church.

Be the Church in Your Community

How to Host a Halloween Party

Build A Fire In The Driveway

Pumpkins, Cats, and Candy

Tricking Our Neighbors?

What A Great Neighborhood!

Do you want to share Jesus with your neighbors?

What to Say when You Stop Attending Church

Church is Badly Broken

Church is badly broken

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