Dechurchification

My recent post on the dechurching of Chicago was picked up on the Think Christian blog (they must have been hurting for content;-)

I was intrigued by some of the comments posted in response.  I replied to the comments with some questions of my own.  Here are some further comments and ideas on "dechurchification" (as my friend Bill M. is calling it.)

Church buildings are a kingdom resource.  Not the only kingdom resource--far from it, in fact.   Here are just a couple of "resources" that go far ahead of church buildings on my valuable church resources list:

• Jesus and His Gospel are the Church's #1 ongoing, daily resource. 
• The indwelling Holy Spirit of God stands as resource #1a.   
• The Bible--absolutely mission critical. 
• The transformed people of God--essential, a core resource, a defining element of what "church" is. 

But church property is a valuable Kingdom resource--a stewardship--something to be handled for the sake of the Kingdom. 

Worshiping buildings--bad.  Worshiping in buildings, even buildings we own--not bad. 

Church buildings represent opportunity space.  Space that can be used for gathered worship of Jesus, space to serve the community, and space that can be exploited to provoke spiritual awareness in its neighbors. 

Churches can survive and thrive without owning buildings.  As a multi-site church, several of our locations have spent long seasons (3-14 years) renting space for worship gatherings every week--it's familiar territory to us.  Having or not having a building does not determine the ability of a church to minister to people and to grow.

But I am convinced that cities benefit from church buildings.  Buildings stand in the midst of urban life and demand that people think about God.  They work in concert with the living, breathing body of Christ to connect people to Jesus.  Buildings provide opportunity for life-giving, life-transforming ministries to happen.  Buildings express an open door to people who need God.

The disappearance of buildings from the landscape of a city--from the landscape of my city, Chicago--communicates to the people as well. As they disappear they say--

• "Church isn't relevant--if it was, it would still be here after the community changes." 
• "Obviously, we've outgrown the need for church.  Our community is fine without churches."
• "Church people don't care about church so why should I?"
• "Church is expendable.  I don't need a faith community to connect to God."

I love my city--the city of Chicago.  I want my city to love Jesus.  I want my city to be unable to ignore the Church of Jesus.  I want my city to be blessed by the presence of Christians and their church buildings--buildings that are used to make Chicago and its 77 different community areas a better place to live. I want to live out the mandate of Jeremiah 29:7, to "seek God for the welfare of the city." 

I believe part of that vision is in revitalizing (not selling) under-used church space.  Taking sacred space that has lost its influence and re-energizing it with the presence of the Church of the living God.

Comments

[Leigh]

Hey Pastor Kevin,

That site wasn't hurting for content... the author of that is Chris Salzman, one of our really great friends. He was actually one of Mike's groomsman, and he just got a job writing for that blog, and I told him about your blog and wanted him to see the story about Nehemiah's wall, and he said he loved your blog so much and was going to keep up with reading it. :o)