October 2, 2007

This “Business” of Church

Posted in Building "Church", God at 10:35 pm by questy

Yeah, yeah… I’m about to lead you to something that will certainly put me at odds with the brick-and-mortar idea of church.

There’s some things that happen when you start to consider planting a church. You immediately begin to think what comes after your living room can’t hold everyone any more. Your thoughts begin to wander to where is the best area off town to meet, and how to get a site big enough to hold your little group. So, let’s say you get the idea you want to borrow some school gym or other such location. Easy enough, you’ve contacts through teachers that attend your group.

All goes well in meeting with the principal, he just needs a couple of things to help absolve the school of blame in the event of an accident. An insurance rider should do nicely. “Well, we don’t have an insurance policy, as we are not a 501(c)3 charitable organization…we are a church.

Hold on, you might say… Your church isn’t a registered tax-exempt organization? Why not?

Bad News

Well, here’s the bad news. If you incorporate (i.e. become a business), you fall under the same regulations as any other non-profit charity in the world. From the church of Satan itself all the way to various organizations such as NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association…Yes, pedophiles), abortion rights activists, etc. You are now yoked via the tying bind of the 501(c)3 portion of the tax code.

One of the most popular set of regulations you have to follow is the anti-discriminatory clauses that government agencies are required by law to adhere to:

Civil Rights Act of 1964
Title VII prohibits not only intentional discrimination, but also practices that have the effect of discriminating against individuals because of their race, color, national origin, religion, or sex.

This is the primary series of tenets that all federal agencies and employers are required to abide by, or face discrimination lawsuits.

Unfortunately, many federal agencies are beginning to add “sexual orientation” to this list. They are beginning to hold that you cannot “discriminate” against the various groups fuzzing the lines around the definition of “discriminate”. For instance, if you wish to have a sermon one Sunday on Romans 1 and take a stance that God finds homosexuality to be a sin, the federal government may or may not decide that you have discriminated against persons of other sexual orientations than what you yourself practice.

Moreso, if you wish to meet in a federally regulated location such as a school, you are bound by the above laws as well.

Now what do we do?

Well, you’re an agency of the state; A federally regulated and sanctioned non-profit organization and must abide by these guidelines. However, you are a citizen of Heaven and a child of God. You are bound by your Heavenly citizenship to follow God’s laws above all others.

Something is going to have to give.

Here are your options:

Not preach the gospel as God reveals it to you. (hopefully not an option)
Not meet at the school or federal location.
Not obtain a 501(c)3 designation or obtain insurance.

It would seem to me that you’ve got decisions to make. You have to decide where to go with your meetings and how to grow. Tradition puts you in a building with federal rules and regulations, but I believe things are beginning to take a new turn.

Church Growth
In the past, we’ve taken growth of a church plant to mean that God was wanting to have a church built and a ministry begun like the many dozens and dozens of churches that you can see on any city street in America. We’ve taken it to mean the development of church programs, the purchase of a church van and property, incorporation, employees…. a business if you will.

Much in the same way we are seeing a tendency toward “viral marketing” and grassroots distribution methods in media, I think our current culture is demanding a “new way” of doing church.

For the next few installments, I’m going to start to peer into where I believe the new directions of God into church growth and the spread of the gospel are going. Feel free to agree, disagree, or whatever. I’d love to hear your opinions below.

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This "Business" of Church

Posted in Building "Church", God at 10:35 pm by questy

Yeah, yeah… I’m about to lead you to something that will certainly put me at odds with the brick-and-mortar idea of church.

There’s some things that happen when you start to consider planting a church. You immediately begin to think what comes after your living room can’t hold everyone any more. Your thoughts begin to wander to where is the best area off town to meet, and how to get a site big enough to hold your little group. So, let’s say you get the idea you want to borrow some school gym or other such location. Easy enough, you’ve contacts through teachers that attend your group.

All goes well in meeting with the principal, he just needs a couple of things to help absolve the school of blame in the event of an accident. An insurance rider should do nicely. “Well, we don’t have an insurance policy, as we are not a 501(c)3 charitable organization…we are a church.

Hold on, you might say… Your church isn’t a registered tax-exempt organization? Why not?

Bad News

Well, here’s the bad news. If you incorporate (i.e. become a business), you fall under the same regulations as any other non-profit charity in the world. From the church of Satan itself all the way to various organizations such as NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association…Yes, pedophiles), abortion rights activists, etc. You are now yoked via the tying bind of the 501(c)3 portion of the tax code.

One of the most popular set of regulations you have to follow is the anti-discriminatory clauses that government agencies are required by law to adhere to:

Civil Rights Act of 1964
Title VII prohibits not only intentional discrimination, but also practices that have the effect of discriminating against individuals because of their race, color, national origin, religion, or sex.

This is the primary series of tenets that all federal agencies and employers are required to abide by, or face discrimination lawsuits.

Unfortunately, many federal agencies are beginning to add “sexual orientation” to this list. They are beginning to hold that you cannot “discriminate” against the various groups fuzzing the lines around the definition of “discriminate”. For instance, if you wish to have a sermon one Sunday on Romans 1 and take a stance that God finds homosexuality to be a sin, the federal government may or may not decide that you have discriminated against persons of other sexual orientations than what you yourself practice.

Moreso, if you wish to meet in a federally regulated location such as a school, you are bound by the above laws as well.

Now what do we do?

Well, you’re an agency of the state; A federally regulated and sanctioned non-profit organization and must abide by these guidelines. However, you are a citizen of Heaven and a child of God. You are bound by your Heavenly citizenship to follow God’s laws above all others.

Something is going to have to give.

Here are your options:

Not preach the gospel as God reveals it to you. (hopefully not an option)
Not meet at the school or federal location.
Not obtain a 501(c)3 designation or obtain insurance.

It would seem to me that you’ve got decisions to make. You have to decide where to go with your meetings and how to grow. Tradition puts you in a building with federal rules and regulations, but I believe things are beginning to take a new turn.

Church Growth
In the past, we’ve taken growth of a church plant to mean that God was wanting to have a church built and a ministry begun like the many dozens and dozens of churches that you can see on any city street in America. We’ve taken it to mean the development of church programs, the purchase of a church van and property, incorporation, employees…. a business if you will.

Much in the same way we are seeing a tendency toward “viral marketing” and grassroots distribution methods in media, I think our current culture is demanding a “new way” of doing church.

For the next few installments, I’m going to start to peer into where I believe the new directions of God into church growth and the spread of the gospel are going. Feel free to agree, disagree, or whatever. I’d love to hear your opinions below.

Permalink 1 Comment

February 21, 2007

Next Steps… (the “who”)

Posted in Building "Church", God at 10:43 pm by questy

After that diversion, I’m going to now continue in the same though vein I was in back in August.

Who…

It seems like a perfectly normal question… Who? And to what extent? What is the role of the believer, and to what ends?

Who is the churchgoer?

People go to church for a myriad of reasons. Some go for “fire insurance” while others for social interaction. Still others to serve and minister, and many to sing songs and feel better about their life.

Oddly, there’s very little mention of these types or even many of the activities we see in modern churches in the Bible. Jesus brought a sharp paradigm shift to the worshippers of the day. He came and literally turned upside down all thoughts regarding the church, churchgoing, and relationship with God. No more were people considered Godly just because they were rich or perhaps had many servants. Also neither was holiness denoted through broadcasting loudly all the great and wonderful things you had done (or were doing) in the name of God.

Instead, Jesus made point to specifically enumerate all the teaching of the day (You have heard it said _x_, but I tell you _y_. Amazingly counter-culture!

Jesus brought a bold new idea that people were not needed between you and God, but you could actually commune with Him without interference. You could boldly go where only the High Priest had gone before; into God’s very presence and commune with Him.

Of course, established religion immediately took action to put a stop to this one. He was interrupting the way they had made things. They had a comfortable existence with plenty of members there to help foster their way of doing things, their position in the community, and yes, their standard of living.

Like Nobody’s Business

The Temple had become a business. Jesus saw it. In fact, doing something totally against His character, you find him throwing things around, and weilding a pretty nasty whip when he found it so. I’d say he had a bit of a strong opinion on the matter. 🙂

A business… getting money into the religious establishment as quickly and efficiently as possible and making sure it stayed that way. “This Jesus is going to ruin everything!”. We read of multiple attempts not just to silence Him, but to outright kill and even commit Him to a mental facility. (such as they were at the time)

In fact, even His family were among those positively convinced he was stark raving mad.

“He doesn’t follow the way the Pharisees do things!”, “Born Again?”, “His teaching isn’t like the Pharisees. He Teaches as one in authority.”

Jesus wasn’t worried with ledgers and numbers, nor was He worried with building funds, shut-in programs, and children’s ministries. The “Business” we call church today simply didn’t exist.

Now don’t get me wrong, the work churches do is really good work. In fact, much like the woman who is the spiritual head over her household by default because the husband refuses to stand in his rightful place, the church as we see it in the earth today is doing the work of the ministry by default, I believe, because it simply isn’t being done as God would intend.

Now, since the church has so many little things to worry with from a business perspective, the work of the ministry gets done “as catch can”.

The Prime Directive

So in my little diatribe about what church is, where we should be heading, and how to get there, I have to go back and find our marching orders. Any army guy will tell you that his primary order is to guard what he’s been given to the limits of his responsible area and depart that responsibility only when properly relieved. What are those primary orders? What is the MAIN thing we’ve been told from the beginning?

Here are some quotes from Jesus’ lips as told by the Apostles:

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: 20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. 16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned. 17 And these signs shall accompany them that believe: in my name shall they cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Luke 24:46 and he said unto them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 Ye are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I send forth the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high. 50 And he led them out until they were over against Bethany: and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. 51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: 53 and were continually in the temple, blessing God.

The authors of the gospels each record a similar directive (although John had different things to impart, he gives general storyline symmetry via a narrative toward the end of the book) which in short speading the things Jesus taught.

Luke then adds emphasis to Jesus’ directive recorded elsewhere regarding staying in Jerusalem until empowered from heaven. Almost as if he wanted to set an exclamation point to his earlier letter, and expanding a little on that mission.

What of the “Context Switch”?

Now, many of you are going “huh?” after that little title but follow me. In programming, there is a little tool known as a “context switch”. Essentially (without getting too involved) it’s a method an operating system uses to store the current “state of things”, move on to something else, but still have access to come back and pick up where you left off.

I see Jesus talking about a myriad of things, healing and performing miracles to validate His words. He covers what the characteristics of a disciple is, what the Kingdom is and is like, what holiness was about, and a smattering of things contrasting the teaching of the Pharisees. He even gives the disciples a “trial run” under His personal tutelage, sending them out to do many of those things, later calling them back and commenting on their actions, the successes and the new sacrifices each of them would have to make to truly be called His disciple.

But then, a change…

(continued)

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August 2, 2006

Beginnings… (the “what”)

Posted in Building "Church", God at 10:34 pm by questy

So… Here I am. Where do I start?

Well, like the title says I would assume the beginning.

Known #1: Called.

Ok, so I’m called. That means I’m more broken than the next guy, and need serious fixing and maybe….just maybe I’m a little bit crazy. 🙂

Known #2: Prepared.

Not at all. Folks, I’m laying this out as I get it, or as I hear it, or as I think about it. This is a direct look into the life of someone who is being called and what he’s doing throughout the process. Unedited, uncensored.

Known # 3: Scared

Fact is, I’m scared witless. I don’t have the knowledge or skills to do this kind of a work, but plan on doing everything I know how just to do what’s asked of me. I can only pray for God’s guidance, His grace, His Spirit, and His wisdom. Outside of that, I’ve got nothing to offer to this exercise. Sure, I can play some guitar, sing, and teach a little, but outside of that, as they say, “I got nothing”.

Oh yeah, the beginning

So I started to dig into some bible regarding church, threw down some dictionaries, even peeked at some greek. I was essentially looking to go back to basics like I did here in this blog and figure out just what church is.

The word church is used throughout the New Testament, starting with Jesus, and going form there. Same word everywhere, too (except one place that was added by translators, but essentially meant the same thing).

From what I was able to put together, I’m going to throw out a working definition:

church. n. an assembly of the followers of Jesus Christ.

Simple, but I like it. It doesn’t denote a particular place or ideology. It emphasizes one who follows Christ (which He himself outlines as the definition of a disciple). It also points out that it is an assembling together of these folks, and does not impose a particular denomination, religious afiliation, building, synagogue.

While many will feel this shows a lack of structure, a same amount on the “other side” of that definition will point out that it also frees that “assembly” from the constraints of a particular place. It can be someone’s home, a local coffee shop, a school, a gym, a park, a town square. You name it, they can meet as Jesus’ followers anywhere by this definition.

I chose this idea becaue it appears more and more over time that God is moving away from the mega-church idea, and even the brick-and-mortar idea and further into a home-based church movement. I see it all over the ‘net, in the news, and even hear about it on the radio. God has come to a place where He is doing a new thing, a new work in the Earth, and here we are receiving the marchhing orders like so many soldiers on detail; Waiting for orders. Not leaving their post until dispatched.

It appears the dispatch has been made. 🙂

Back on topic.

“An Assembly of the followers of Jesus Christ”

That’s a meeting of those who follow Jesus’ teachings, His Spirit’s guidance, and His Father’s heart. Followers also implies adherents to His teaching as well.

Simple Beginnings

There we are with a full, detailed explanation of who we are, and what we do. What an incredibly humble beginning to a new work God is purposing.

The ride is starting to get fun.

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