Change in the Church House!

Over the last two years, I've been heading a committee to re-think church in its most simplistic form. We were in a place where our needs were changing and we were looking for something different. Not only were we looking, but those around the church were searching for something. We began to ask ourselves, "Where are we heading?" Sustainable growth became the underlying factor - driving our group to begin searching for the answers. So it began. We started researching scriptures about everything regarding change. We started researching churches across the country that had changed their way of doing things, implemented new ways to spread the message of Jesus, and learned how to grow their churches. We realized that we were looking for change, but we needed to identify what was most important. 
We took a moment to think about what we were trying to do and began listing the necessities for growth within our church. We found that people wanted a place to feel connected, a place to grow, a place to find themselves, a place to find people that they could share their lives with. It was simple. We had overcomplicated the purpose of the church. We tried to make the church our everything - our entertainment, our classroom, our kitchen, our dinner table, our medicine, our psychiatrist, our fitness club, and our idol. This model of church does not fit in today's ever changing world. Things are moving fast, social media is everywhere, our jobs require more attention, our children are more active, more people are attending college, and people have so many more choices to pick from. 

We discovered that church could not be everything, but it had to be the center of people's lives. The Church was not the "building"; it lives within every Christian. People want to experience live, not hide through it. So, things have changed. I am encouraged that abundant life does not have to always be exhibited in our church services, but it must be demonstrated in our everyday lives.