The Church Has Left the Building

Imagine the typical Sunday morning complete with all the typical expectations and attitudes. It starts with the alarm going off and the sluggish response on your part to getting out of bed. Finally you roll out and begin getting ready for church. You head to the kitchen and quickly scarf down a bowl of cereal, locate one of your many Bibles, then head out the door with the family.

The ride over is quiet and non-eventful as everyone is still waking up. But then as you approach the church you notice the signs that usually direct people in, are missing. You think to yourself – “someone must have forgotten to do their job”. Then as you turn the corner you notice something even more strange...in fact quite disturbing. Instead of a parking lot full of cars and people out in front laughing and talking, there is no one in sight. The parking lot is empty and the building seems deserted.

You blink twice to make sure you're not hallucinating, but each time you open your eyes it becomes clearer and clearer that church is not happening today. You check your watch to see if you’ve arrived early. You ask your wife what day it is. Finally, you grab your phone to call the pastor. Something is wrong or you missed an announcement or an e-mail. They couldn’t or wouldn’t just disappear over night like that.

Feeling a little anxious and somewhat annoyed you open your mouth to voice your disapproval. But the words do little to calm your mind. So in a semi-panicked fit of a religious fix need, you wheel the car into the church parking lot and park.

Twenty minutes and twenty attempts later you finally get the pastor on the line. "Where are you guys?" You ask sarcastically. Did we move? What’s up? His response was not one you were prepared to hear.

“We’ve decided to take a few Sundays and go out into our community and BE THE CHURCH. We’re going to serve our neighbors and build relationships with each other and just enjoy being the church for a few weeks.”

As that concept begins to sink in, you hurriedly come to your senses and ask the next logical question. “So what are we doing today to be the church?” “Thanks for asking” the pastor responded. “Today we’re...

What would happen if a church was crazy enough to just cancel their Sunday church service and in its place schedule a bunch of serving opportunities and relationship building atmospheres?

Well here at Family Life Christian Fellowship we’re going to find out. For the whole month of August we're going to cancel church as we’ve known it – (A worship set, children’s programming, a message from the pastor etc. You know the normal routine of a church service). And instead we’re going to do something different.

We’re going to get out of the normal church on Sunday box and we’re going to use that time that we’ve all already dedicated to God in a new and exciting way. And out of this month here’s what we hope to accomplish:

•Build relationships between our church and other community organizations
•Reach unchurched friends by inviting them to come serve with us
•Improve the reputation of our church in our community
•Plant spiritual seeds of God's care through serving our neighbor's
•Share God's love in a tangible way
•Move our members from inactive to active

So I encourage you – Get out of your religious, go to a building on Sunday, normal, same ole same ole, predictable church box and try something new with us. We’ll get back to having church again in September, but for August we’re going to be radical in a whole new way. And I think we’re going to learn some stuff about ourselves that will make us a better church in the future.

So here we go!