Theology of the Church Archives - Page 12 of 54

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.

Many talk about being the church, but few know how. We understand church as those who follow Jesus, not just in “doctrine” or “belief” but out into the streets, among the people, mingling with them and loving them where they are. Being the church is as simple as loving the person in front of you right now.

Here are some examples of how this looks in our own life as we “preach sermons of love” where we live.

The Cheeseburger Lady

Yesterday I needed to pick up a couple of things at Costco. Since I had a little extra time, I visited all of the free food sample tables. I even tried a few of the samples, but mostly I talked to the people working the sample tables.

My first stop was the cheeseburger lady. Ravenous people who obviously hadn’t eaten in weeks grabbed wedges of cheeseburgers midair before the cheeeburger lady could even set the tray on the table. The tray was empty by the time she sat it down. Other people loudly complained to the cheeseburger lady that they didn’t get any. As she cut up more cheeseburgers behind a Plexiglas shield, one man reached his hand behind the shield, grabbing a chunk of cheeseburger, even when the cheeseburger lady asked him to please not do that.

The rude, unappreciative mob departed when the cheeseburgers ran out. The cheeseburger lady looked frazzled. I figured we had two or three minutes to talk while the next batch of cheeseburgers was warming in her little oven. I asked if she was having a bad day, and told her I understand because I used to be a caterer and experienced similar things – rude people grabbing food. She said it is true, that people are not nice to her, and that no one ever says thank you.

As the cheeseburgers finished cooking, we laughed together like old friends. Before the next mob arrived, she told me I could have as many samples as I liked. I took one, and made a special point of thanking her and telling her how much I appreciate her being there. The entire scenario probably took less time than it took you to read about it. I made a dear friend in less than three minutes. She was laughing and smiling and waved goodbye as I left.

I visited four more sample people. All were smiling or laughing when we parted. They made my day. I hope I helped brighten theirs. No Bible tracts, no Bible verses, no invitations to a “church service”. Just noticing and loving people. Maybe Jesus doesn’t visit Costco. If Jesus did, He’d probably stop by and chat with the cheeseburger lady (before going to the park).

Jesus Came to the Dance

After Costco I went home and my wife and I got ready to go to our weekly dance in Balboa Park, the largest park in San Diego. The building where we dance is often frequented by homeless people. After the dance had begun, a filthy homeless man walked into the room where we were dancing.

Standing near the door where he entered, I greeted him. He said “God bless you.” Homeless people frequently tell me that, so I didn’t think much about it. I headed to the kitchen where I was preparing ice cream for the break, and the homeless man appeared to be heading for the door.

However, after I left the room, he mingled with the dancers and told them he is Jesus. My wife recognized that he is probably suffering from mental illness. She asked him if he would like to step out on the patio with her and tell her about himself. They went out on the patio. The man told my wife about his doctor and treatments and then walked toward the zoo.

Was he a filthy mentally ill homeless person who thought he was Jesus, or was he in some sense Jesus? We may never know, but I know the church was there to treat him honorably and kindly and to listen to his story.

As we continue this series, we will continue to look for the church in the streets of San Diego “preaching sermons of love.” Have you seen the church in your community? Have you been the church in your community? Have you seen Jesus in your community? Please feel free to share your stories below.

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 Proclaim the Gospel to Your Neighbors

By Jeremy Myers

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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

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.

Christian Elitism

By Jeremy Myers

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Thanks goes to Eric Carpenter.

Tithing $50,000,000,000

By Jeremy Myers

25 Comments

There are about 10 million tithing Christians in America who give an estimated $50,000,000,000 annually to their churches and other charitable causes. That’s $50 billion!

Arthur Sido at The Voice of One Crying Out in Suburbia alerted me to this study, which was originally reported on Christianity Today, and he asks how churches spend this money. He says this:

This gets back to the broader of issue of our love and indeed worship of money in the church, an idolatry that is a near perfect reflection of the broader American cultural obsession with money. I absolutely affirm that we have a serious problem with how money and the church relate but I don’t think it is the same problem we hear about so often. We don’t so much have a giving problem in the church, what we really have is a spending problem. Where is our spending as the church focused? Is it outward or inward and which is more Biblical?

The New Testament church was outward focusing in….

Caring for the needy, such as widows among the church.

Concerned for the welfare of Christians in other locations that were suffering.

Supporting the evangelistic work of apostles/missionaries/evangelists who were traveling and preaching the Gospel.

The New Testament church was not concerned with…

Mortgages, interest payments, building projects, utilities.

Salaries for religious employees.

Material and curriculum for Sunday school.

Supporting the hierarchy of religious organizations like denominations and seminaries.

That is right on target! (Go read the rest of the article here: Are We Outward Focused or Inward Focused? Follow The Checkbook To Find Out)

Tithing and Money

I have written similar ideas before about how the church spends money it receives from tithing, and what could be done with this money instead (e.g., How the Church Can Solve the World Water Crisis, Liquidating our Property, and Money, Missions, and Ministry.

What if the churches around the country took JUST ONE TENTH of the tithing money they bring in in tithes every year, and put it toward rescuing young girls caught in human trafficking? If we tithed on our tithing income, we could give $5 billion every single year to some cause. What sorts of causes?

Though there are thousand things we could do with this tithing money, just take one example that has been heavy on my heart in recent years… rescuing girls from human trafficking.

A rescue center was recently started in Seattle called “The Genesis Project.” (It is featured in the movie, Rape for Profit.) As far as I can tell from their financial statements, they started the project and funded it for well under $1 million (2011 Tax Return, 2012 Balance Sheet). To date, they have rescued 87 human trafficking victims.

So imagine with me…. if churches around the country decided to use just 10% of the money they bring in to help start and run other centers like The Genesis Project, we could start 5000 of these centers…. in just one year!

There are only about 600 cities with populations of over 50,000 people, which means we could put one center in every single city with a population of over 50,000, and still have 4,400 centers that could be started in cities with larger populations.

This is just one example. Obviously, there are large number of worldwide needs that could be addressed. World hunger. Water needs. Health and humanitarian disasters. Schools. Orphanages.

Churches often look at these worldwide problems and say, “It’s too large!” But then we go spend billions of dollars on buildings, parking lots, and soundboards.

I am convinced that most of the world’s problems could be solved if we in the church just spent our tithing money in different ways.

Imagine what the church could do with $50 billion if we decided that nicer buildings, better parking lots, and newer soundboard were not a priority? If Jesus had $50 billion every year, how would He spend it?

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.

Being the Church is Loving the Person in Front of You

The Cheeseburger Lady

Jesus Came to the Dance

Be the Church in Your Community

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

Christian Elitism

Tithing $50,000,000,000

Tithing and Money

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

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