Inviting My Neighbors/Friends to Church?: Part 1

I was on twitter yesterday, when one of my buddies tweeted that we should all be inviting our neighbors to our corporate church gatherings...some would simply say, "you should be inviting your neighbors to church." I found that pretty interesting.  I started to think...really? After asking for clarification on this, I am not sure I heard what he was saying...but it still convinced me that I needed to write something about this subject.  


Now, back in the day, I would totally agree that I should inviting anyone and everyone to church, but as I have grown in my understanding of what it means to follow Jesus, I can't agree that my purpose in my neighborhood is to get my neighbors to a church gathering.   I am going to show through a few posts: 

What is Church?

What is the secular vs sacred?

What Happens at a Church Gathering on Sunday?
Why Would My Neighbors/Friends Want to Go to That?

What is Church?

If you ask most people what church is, most would say it is the thing that you have to wake up early for on a Sunday and then go to.  Church is a thing you go to.  Most people might ask, "Do you go to church?" Church has become a 2 to 3 hour event one attends to make amends with God.   People have many views on how this Sunday should go down, some call it mass, some call it a service and how one goes about those two hours have separated people for centuries.  But, is this really what church is? Is it an event on a Sunday? 

What is interesting is that how we "do church" today isn't actually something we find in the Scriptures.   The term church actually is a gathering of a people.   The church is one that is a people, not an event.  It is a people, not a building.  You don't go to the church, if you are a follower of Jesus, you, along with others you gather with, are the church.   

So, instead of thinking of a Sunday as "church", the bible actually speaks of something quite differently.  It would include what happens on Sunday as church, but it would include many other things as "church" as well.  When followers of Jesus gather, they are the church, no matter when they do it, or where they do it at.  So, I am not merely dismissing 2000  years of church history here, but we do need a far wider definition of what it is, or better said, WHO we are. 

We have taken this idea of church that Jesus speaks about and have turned it into an institution, which was never meant to be.  And, when you turn it into an institution, it is very easy to hate it, it is easy to stop its movement, it is very easy to misunderstand it and it is very easy to abuse it.  

Jesus has told us many things about his church:

1. The very gates of Hades couldn't stop it (Matthew 16:18)

2. It would be built on the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done (Matthew 16:13-20)

3. The church, the ones who follow Jesus, would be marked by their love for each other and others (1 John 4:7-21).  

When the church becomes more about an institution and the mere men who run it, none of the above will be true.  It has to be about something more.  If it's about an institution, the only goal is to make that institution bigger and better and more rich.  What have we seen in the history of the church as an institution? It looks more like a nation trying to force people in through forced conversions (look at the crusades) , it's run like a business that needs money to run and we try to get people to come to our church because ours is better than the other guys (think recruiting like a headhunter) and we draw lines in the sand and become all about advertising for the sake of our church instead of those other guys.   It really does become a sleazeball paradigm. 

This can't be what Jesus was trying to start when he came.  Especially since you never see Jesus starting a church like a business or institution.   But, he did start a movement of people on a mission sent out by him to show others what he is like. 

This is what church is.  We will gather on Sundays, or other days, to celebrate who God is and what he has done.  But, we can't think that is where our time as the church stops.  We are always the church.   We are always about "our Father's business" showing people who he is and what he is like, not who we are and what we are like.  This is actually pretty freeing for both me and my neighbor.  I know I am not trying to recruit like a used car salesman and he doesn't have to be afraid to be my friend waiting for the sales pitch. 

The church's job is simply this: show others what God is like through our actions and our words, and we are to be marked by the love for God and others more than ourselves.  

This is not marked by me doing these things to try and get others to think like me, to get others to go to a building on a Sunday, to get others to be a "Christian."  NO!  We are to merely show and speak what God is like because we truly love God who loves others.  If you are only showing others what God is like because you want something from them (i.e. get them to "church", get them baptized, get them like you) that isn't true love, that is a coercive love, a manipulative love.   I never want my neighbors or friends to think the reason I am nice to them, the reason I throw BBQs, neighborhood breakfasts, 4th of July parties, etc. is to get them to be like me or to get something from them.  How disgusting is that?  Actually, one of the first times one of my neighbors came to a neighborhood breakfast he asked his wife: 

Why are they doing this?  Are they trying to sell us something? Are they Avon salesmen? 

Pretty funny, yet pretty sad.  Not the neighbors thinking, but the fact that people aren't nice and loving just for the sake of being nice and loving. 

The reason I do all these things is simply because Jesus has been so good to me and he asks for me to show that to others.  God first loved me, so now I can love both God and neighbor. 

The real question we should be asking as the church, as followers of Jesus is this: 

If I knew my neighbor would never think Jesus is Lord and Saviour, would I continue to pursue them and love them like I love myself? 

If the answer is no, or not sure...you are doing these nice things for yourself, not for the sake of God's glory.   Again, I would love any neighbor/friend that is reading this or that is living life with me to follow Jesus, but that isn't my end goal.  My end goal is to simply love them, as the church sent out to them, as God loved me.   As my friend will they see and hear the good news of Jesus...yes.  Will it be rammed down their throat like a cold caller for new high speed internet? Not a chance.  

The church is not supposed to be an institution or something you go to.  The church is supposed to, and has always been supposed to, be about being a people of God showing others what God is like through our actions and our words.  Sadly, we are human, and we have failed.  Sadly, I will fail today showing this to my neighbor.  But, again, it's not about me, it's about God.  I am a hypocrite.  I am a failure.  But, the good news is that God isn't a hypocrite.  God isn't a failure.  He will continue to pursue me, he will continue to forgive me, he will continue to love me, even as I fail in this life...over...and over...and over.  

Let's not make church about Sunday alone.  Let's make it about Jesus alone.