What should a church look like?
I was thinking about this the other day, partly because of a Christianity Today issue from a few weeks ago, and partly because of some impressions I have seen in other areas.
But I want to pose the question, what should a church look like?
By that, I do not mean polity, or what the building looks like, I mean the people, since the church is the people.
The reason I bring this up is because it seems there are so many churches that do not look like their neighborhood. This can be explained by several surface reasons. One being that the church is in the city and has been in the city since the neighborhood was made up of one particular racial demographic and well, the church is still made up of the same demographic, but the neighborhood isn't. Another reason, and this one is pretty unique to the United States, and that is the plurality of churches with almost every theological persuasion known to man. If someone is a dispensational, hymn preferring, calvinistic Baptist, chances are you can find a church within one hour of where you live. If someone is a dispensational, hymn preferring, non-calvinistic Baptist, same thing. If you're someone who is a Seventh Day Advenist, or Church of Christ, you're in luck, as long as you don't mind driving in some areas. If someone is a Reformed Presbyterian, chances are.....and so on and so on. And this goes for those who are theologically liberal as well. Our country abounds in churches.
From my experience, churches have been slow to react to the changing demographics in their areas. This seems to have been the case in my home city, Oklahoma City. I am not picking on any church in particular, but from my observation, when one area of the city changed from predominately white to Spanish speaking Hispanic, the churches were slow in meeting the needs of their neighborhoods. That's not to say, there wasn't food and things of that nature, but I mean a real push to intigrate these folks in the churches. Now, I am speaking from the point of an evangelical, so it is understandable that a lot of Roman Catholics moved into the area, but there were some evangelicals as well. It was just done slowly.
I understand this to be the case in other parts of the country as well, where neighborhood demographics changed, but the neighborhood churches did not. This is something that must be taken into consideration.
It is understandable that not everyone in the neighborhood attends the neighborhood church, but the neighborhood church should be there for the neighborhood, and the people MUST KNOW THAT.
If anyone else has any thoughts, I'd like to hear them.
But I want to pose the question, what should a church look like?
By that, I do not mean polity, or what the building looks like, I mean the people, since the church is the people.
The reason I bring this up is because it seems there are so many churches that do not look like their neighborhood. This can be explained by several surface reasons. One being that the church is in the city and has been in the city since the neighborhood was made up of one particular racial demographic and well, the church is still made up of the same demographic, but the neighborhood isn't. Another reason, and this one is pretty unique to the United States, and that is the plurality of churches with almost every theological persuasion known to man. If someone is a dispensational, hymn preferring, calvinistic Baptist, chances are you can find a church within one hour of where you live. If someone is a dispensational, hymn preferring, non-calvinistic Baptist, same thing. If you're someone who is a Seventh Day Advenist, or Church of Christ, you're in luck, as long as you don't mind driving in some areas. If someone is a Reformed Presbyterian, chances are.....and so on and so on. And this goes for those who are theologically liberal as well. Our country abounds in churches.
From my experience, churches have been slow to react to the changing demographics in their areas. This seems to have been the case in my home city, Oklahoma City. I am not picking on any church in particular, but from my observation, when one area of the city changed from predominately white to Spanish speaking Hispanic, the churches were slow in meeting the needs of their neighborhoods. That's not to say, there wasn't food and things of that nature, but I mean a real push to intigrate these folks in the churches. Now, I am speaking from the point of an evangelical, so it is understandable that a lot of Roman Catholics moved into the area, but there were some evangelicals as well. It was just done slowly.
I understand this to be the case in other parts of the country as well, where neighborhood demographics changed, but the neighborhood churches did not. This is something that must be taken into consideration.
It is understandable that not everyone in the neighborhood attends the neighborhood church, but the neighborhood church should be there for the neighborhood, and the people MUST KNOW THAT.
If anyone else has any thoughts, I'd like to hear them.
posted by Bobby's blog at 10:02 AM
1 Comments:
Mr. Bobby,
If I got the right idea out of your blog, I agree that churches today are far off from in touch with God. Most anyone can put on an act and pretend that they are happy with the results of their life. I can honestly say that as a Christian I know that in the past, my willingliness to help out with the church was all part of my plan to be admired.As a true Christian now, and a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church I can see the difference in my life.
I am fifteen years old, but even as an a young teenager I still have a strong desire to help my church become closer to God.
At first, I felt that sometimes it is difficult as a teenager, and female speaker in my church, to be heard, but then I realized the last thing I need is to be heard, but to hear what God is saying.
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