Joining the leadership team of Open Heaven Church, and taking on the leadership of our 18-30’s expression (OH1) a couple of years ago led me to begin thinking far more deeply about church than I had before. I started to think about why we do what we do and how to do what God wants us to do.
It’s important for us to keep asking ourselves these sort of questions; not to settle for what we’ve always known but to push and grow and learn to pioneer fresh ways of seeing the Kingdom manifest on earth. We, the church, are God’s people – called into sonship and daughtership; commissioned to exercise authority to bring heaven to earth by making disciples, baptizing them and teaching the commands of Jesus (Matthew 28: 18-20). God’s mission has a church, not vice versa.
Each of us has unique gifts, talents and contributions to bring to the party. The Church is really the only place where all the different spheres of life and influence overlap. Where else do you see engineers befriending athletes, designers befriending linguists and economists befriending biologists?
And yet, many people feel that they live a dual life – church and work. I remember being in churches where the women volunteered with the kids or the coffee, and the men didn’t turn up. People were asked to serve IN church, not to engage where they already were AS church.
It’s so tempting to look at our vision through the lenses of our church buildings. We want to be a welcoming place so we set up a hosting team and do refreshments. We want our gatherings to be inviting and comfortable so we have a hosting team. We want our sound to be quality so we have AV, worship needs a band, prayer and ministry team etc. We want volunteers. Or do we?
I think it’s time for a better perspective.
The reality is that anyone can walk away from a role or a rota, but no one can walk away from their calling. If you’re called as someone who brings others in and helps people to feel they belong, helping the church welcome people is a great use of your time, and suddenly being there regularly doesn’t feel like a burden. Likewise for musicians, leaders and coffee pourers. So how do I engage with church and acknowledge and respond to my calling?
The church doesn’t need “members”, it needs missionaries. Whatever you are doing right now is the church doing it - when you are studying, working, engaging with your mates or playing sport you are not part of a programme, you are the programme! Your life is intrinsically linked to the life of the church – we are the body of Christ!
God does not want His church to create a bland brand of like-minded, good-intended people. He wants His church to become a catalytic cauldron shooting out fired-up disciples to their places of work and influence to make a real difference.
I want to learn how to celebrate what the church is doing every day in our workplaces, sports pitches, homes and places of study. I want to resist the temptation to increase the number of teams in church and begin to harvest the stories of the church in the world.
Before I have the team leaders calling me to quit their roles at Open Heaven, know that we are called to serve, and many are called to church ministry. If you are gifted as an administrator, serving in church is no bad thing. Same for those gifted designers, lifters, pourers, smilers, huggers, prayers. Let’s commit in humility to learn together how to become more effective AS the body of Christ.
We are all journeying together as the people of God, shaping church; this amazing, diverse body of believers. We are contributors; not consumers, active; not passive. We are present, and we’re here to see His Kingdom come and His will done, on earth as in heaven.
(Some key influencers for me in some of these thoughts include; Alan Scott, Alan Platt and Jon Tyson)
