The Well church and the Leave the Building cause are not just house church things.
We get that often.
It is understandable, though. The Well is a house church, after all, and we’ve decided to label our cause “Leave the Building” – what else would we be about?
Good question. Today, I want to answer that question and in doing so, I’m going to challenge you to utilize a brand new resource we’ve developed. Nothing fancy, just something that we hope is useful for people.
So if “Leave the Building” isn’t just about house churches, what is it about?
Identifying Our Idols
First and foremost, leaving the building is about taking stock of our lives, values, and practices and discerning patterns. Though this may be a seldom-employed practice, it is crucial for our individual and communal growth.
When our traditional Southern Baptist church went through this process we began to realize something: our building was killing us…and we loved it.
It’s a funny thing about churches and even Christians in general…we do what we don’t want to do and what we don’t want to do, those things we do. We are not only addicted to sin, we are addicted to the comfortable, the way things have always been, the status quo. This is so true that we have a tendency to make sacred the status quo just because it works.
That is where we were. We had saddled ourselves with a ridiculous monthly payment that made no sense at all just because we thought we had to be in a building. Luckily, as we learned about the move of God outside of the status quo, we began to realize that our building had become an idol, something that “worked” at one point and that somehow took on sacred status over time.
So, what is it for you? When you take stock, do you sense that you’ve accepted something just because “that’s the way it is?” Is there a discrepancy between what the early church needed and what you think you need?
Write those things down and keep them handy (sticking that paper in your Bible as a supplemental bookmark to the satin ribbon should do the trick).
Reacting to the Movement of God
It may be a subtle difference, but our task as the church is not just to do good, God-glorifying things, but to do whatever it is that God is doing…which most certainly is something that glorifies himself. The reason why it is important to distinguish between the two is because we can spend our whole lives doing good, God-glorifying things and still miss what it is that God was doing and what it is that he was inviting us in on.
John 5 begins by telling the story of when Jesus healed the paralytic at the supposedly miraculous healing pool called Bethesda. Though there were “a great number” of disabled people there waiting to be healed, Jesus went to one, asked him if he wanted to get well and then healed him. Just one. Peculiar, isn’t it? He could have healed them all, couldn’t he? Why just heal one?
Just a few verses later, Jesus is being challenged for performing miracles on the Sabbath and he says something quite interesting, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” Jesus, being God himself, could have healed not just everyone at that pool that day, but everyone who ever needed healing…past, present and the future.
And in doing so, there would be no doubt that it were glorifying to God.
Yet, he didn’t. He did only what he saw the Father doing.
So it should be with us. We can get caught up in doing all kinds of things for God and even have flourishing ministries, but if we are not following God in whatever He is doing, we are not, in the truest sense, Christians (“like Christ”).
As our church spent time in prayer and attempting to discern how God was moving, we kept coming back to this idea of leaving our building. Trust me when I say this was not what we had in mind. Still, God was persistent with us and we were committed to following him wherever he was going.
What about you? Is there something that you keep coming back to, something unconventional perhaps, that you think God may be doing? Where is God moving? In what way does He want you to follow him in your ministry? What about your family? Work? Personal spiritual growth?
Write those things down and stick them in your Bible. You’ll see where this is going soon.
Getting Rid of Baggage
Getting rid of our baggage before God is about shedding all of the unnecessary “stuff” that we have picked up over the years.
Truth be told, the church today seems to be hidden under layers and layers of stuff that it has picked up over the years. I’m not just talking about tradition, though that may be the case, too. I’m talking about the things the church cares about, how she carries herself in the political realm, what she does with her money, what type of books come out of her, where she eats, how she eats…the whole thing. Somehow, we’ve let the church become characterized by all the various fads that it had to respond to throughout history. And, if you’re like me and many others I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with, we’re tired of it. We’re weary not just of our churches being co-opted, but ourselves.
It’s time let go, to take off all the shirts that we’ve willingly put on in response to crises in the past, and learn anew what it means for us to be the church today. By that I don’t mean figure out what shirt we need to put on for our current situation, I mean figuring out who we are when we’re not wearing a shirt at all.
It is then, and only then, that we will be able to respond to what God is doing and leave whatever building has us trapped. It is only when we discover who (and whose) we are that we will be able to know the ways in which we have been co-opted and fooled.
That’s what it means to Leave the Building: to identify idols, react to God, and get rid of baggage. There are other things, to be sure, and even the few that we’ve covered today can (and will) be expanded, but those are the basics. Those things shape our story.
Your Turn
Remember when I mentioned a resource we have developed? Well here is where I humbly request that you take the next step. We put together a short survey that may help you realize where you can Leave the Building in some key areas: church, family, work, outreach and personal spiritual growth.
If you would, please visit our Resource Page and find the one called “Leave the Building Inventory” to download and print the PDF. And if you find it helpful, let us know. If we can improve it, drop us a note.
It’s your turn. Leave the Building.
As I noted in my re-tweet (http://twitter.com/starlyth/status/7720349512), I don’t 100% agree. Of course, with the limited space, that doesn’t help, nor does it explain, nor is it a completely accurate statement.
I actually have to say that I agree with the spirit of the post. I believe that buildings, churches, congregations, programs (and so on) can be spiritual idols.
The PDF questionnaire is very insightful and useful. However, I believe the first section of the Answer Analysis makes an assumption about the health of the “Traditional” church model, when it really is an evaluation of the way church is being done at the assembly they attend, thus condemning a model for a failure in application.
It is the “assumptions” that bother me. I know that you understand that there cannot be one model of doing church, but I ask a gentle question: is the house church model your idol?
The story of “The Well” is awesome, but I wonder if the “house church” is the right model. I also wonder if the “traditional” church is the right model, so don’t get me wrong there.
Perhaps “the right model” is a misnomer. Perhaps we should talk about total church or something.
By: Ian Kirk on January 13, 2010
at 5:06 PM
Ian,
Thank you so much for your response and humility. I appreciate your feedback on the survey and do not intend to do anything but listen to it. I did, however, want to respond to your question.
Before I do, though, allow me to explain my struggle with answering. It seems to me that however I respond I will be in danger of something. If I respond that I have not made the house church model my idol, I am in danger of hiding. If I respond that I have made it my idol, I must cease my involvement with it.
So, instead of answering either of those ways, I will say this: I am well aware of the fact that the house church (or any movement, or anything, for that matter) can easily become an idol for anyone. And that is why The Well and the Leave the Building cause are specifically trying to not just be a house church thing.
When Jesus returns, he will not be coming back for all those who belong to a particular church model. He will be coming back for his Bride, the Church – and she is all over the map.
I’ve tried to be very intentional about what it means to “Leave the Building.” Hopefully, I’ve done a good enough job that it is clear it is not necessarily about going to a house church model. So to share in your own struggle, I don’t know that there is a “right” model. I just know that for some, there are better models. I also know that for some (maybe many) the model they’ve adopted is the result of “the way things are” rather than an honest and prayerful approach to what is best.
So, to bring this full circle: I am doing what I think anyone and everyone should be doing when it comes to identifying their idols and the church model of which I am a part is not exempt from that process. I could very well go to a different church model tomorrow and the “Leave the Building” cause would still be alive, well, and relevant.
That said, as I’ve written this response, I’ve realized that it may be appropriate to develop a similar inventory specifically for those in the house church to help them (and myself) to identify if the house church model has been made an idol.
Any suggestions on good questions/statements that would helpful in that process?
By: Ken Eastburn on January 14, 2010
at 9:12 AM
[...] know exactly what he means…do you? As you read about in a recent post, leaving the building is about taking stock and getting rid of whatever is in the way. This has [...]
By: Top 10 Comments of 2009 « A House Church Blog on January 26, 2010
at 8:34 AM
This is a good and relevant conversation. While I too am currently part of a house church, I not necessarily against having buildings (and from what you’ve posted I don’t get the sense you are an “all or nothing” person either).
What I do see in most institutional/traditional church settings is a real lack of deep relationships. We know each other, but we don’t know each other well. We certainly do not know each other well enough to practice the truly intimate practices we read about in the New Testament – such as confessing our sins to one another or bearing each others burdens – to name two.
To keep this from being too long, I’ll simply state that if those who still enjoy being part of the institutional church want to truly be able to live out the community aspect that is so deeply assumed throughout the New Testament, we need a change in focus. Currently, a great deal of the focus is on putting together a Sunday service. How much time, money and effort goes into this portion of the gathering of the church? My experience has been a vast majority. But, this is not where true community is built. True community can only emerge when we gather in small enough groups to be able to go deep into each others lives. This is the level of relationship required to accomplish most of the New Testament “one anothers”.
Today, many institutional churches are seeing this and adding small groups to the mix of what they do. But, I think if the American Church is to truly get healthy, the institutional church needs to turns it’s focus upside down. Make the small group gatherings the PRIMARY focus – not an add on. I believe when this happens – deep relationships will begin to grow and the larger group gatherings will be much healthier because of it.
By: Dave Johnson on January 26, 2010
at 3:19 PM
I know this is really “late” since your entry was made in January, but your assessment and description about the lack of true fellowship is also what we saw. We belonged to a church for over two years and even though we attended faithfully (service sunday morning and bible study sunday evening) there was rarely, if ever any “fellowship” beyond the superficial and most very “worldly,” leaving me to wonder if I was in the right place…ultimately answered that with a “no” and came to the conclusion we can better follow Jesus and His leading in a group more like what is described in the organic/house/simple church models.
One small group we attended at another church even acknowledged what was supposed to be going on (the fellowship, the confessing, the exhorting, the praying, etc.) but didn’t do it. Very sad but it is definitely worth it when you do finally find those who are like minded, not necessarily about house church but about being a disciple of Jesus Christ and the part we, as the family, should play in each others lives.
By: Cheryl Kaster on March 15, 2010
at 3:50 PM
Hi Dave,
I am definitely not against church buildings, either. But I am trying to get the church to think about the “all” so to speak by asking us to think about what we do that is a matter of comfort and what we do that is the result of our following God in what he is asking us to do.
I agree with you about the relationships. Thanks for sharing!
By: Ken Eastburn on January 26, 2010
at 4:09 PM