Making a Church a Home

There have been debates for quite awhile now about how to get people in the doors of our churches. You know, "seeker sensitive" or not, "are we competing with secular entertainment?", "the marketing of the church", "How do we measure success -- by numbers and income, or by spiritual maturity?", all that sort of thing. And I've been in the discussion myself. But this question is a little different. I'm not asking what is the best way to get people in the door. I'm asking what makes a house of God a home?

I don't believe in going to church. (Keep reading before you leap to conclusions.) I believe in being a part of church. While most people seem to be attending their churches, I think that the Bible calls for ... immersion. Further, from what I've seen, it's pretty easy for people to come and go from church. Our church population seems pretty mobile. They'll go to this church for awhile as long as it pleases them and then, if something is disturbing or just not entirely pleasing, they'll go to that church next. "Church hopping" they call it. And, of course, then there's "church shopping". Time did a piece last year about how Americans aren't so much losing their religion as much as simply changing it. We tend to go from church to church, from denomination to denomination, from whatever doesn't quite interest us to whatever does. And no one is too disturbed. "At least they're in church," they'll say with relief.

Of course, that's not biblical. The Church is described as "the Body of Christ", with each component doing its job so that the whole can be functional and healthy. There is the descriptive term "fellowship" applied to church, a concept that is contained in the Greek word, koinonia. It means more than simple association. It means joint participation, partnership, community. Biblically, then, churches are not supposed to be places to visit, get your fill, and go home. No, they are to be places where we join together in shared lives and direction to encourage, disciple, exhort, and enable one another toward godliness and maturity. So ... how do we do that? How do we stop church from being a pit stop and make it into a home?

One of the primary problems that I see in accomplishing this task is the impediment of ministry. By "impediment" I mean that a faulty perception is likely in your mind when you hear the term. We think of a "minister" as a member of the clergy, a pastor, people specially set aside for "full-time ministry". These are the ones that do it, you see. If you're really dedicated, you might help them at their task, but it is, at the end of the day, their task. And we don't let any silly fact like it's not in the Bible get in our way of thinking that way. So we are detached from ministry. And we are detached from koinonia.

The other primary problem is that of the brotherhood. The Bible is full of references to the family nature of Christianity. We all know that if another person is a fellow believer, he is your "brother in Christ". We casually refer to our "brothers and sisters in the Lord". The terminology is common to us. It's just that the mindset is not. You see, family is a different level of relationship than acquaintance or even friend. Family requires more attention, more dedication, more involvement. Family gives grace where friends don't have to. Family meets needs where acquaintances wouldn't be expected to. I know, I know, I may be talking about an outdated sense of family, but it is still the case in some societies and it certainly was the case in our own culture in the past. So don't let Satan's successful efforts at disassembling "family" throw you off here. Family is thicker, closer, more binding. And we who are in Christ are family.

You see, what makes people show up for church when they're not really in the mood? For some it's sheer dedication or even habit. Fine. But I think there are other reasons for most. Some will say, "I don't really feel like showing up today, but they need me." You know how that goes. You have an obligation. You're going to set up chairs or teach a class or do the usher work or whatever. Maybe you don't feel like going today, but you feel like you're expected to show up because, well, you're preaching the sermon. Ministry. That's one thing that makes for the committed. The other is family. "Well, I don't really feel like showing up, but then they'll want to know where I was and if I'm okay and, well, I'll go anyway because they're expecting me." Hopefully, of course, it isn't so negative. Hopefully it's more like, "I don't feel up to it today, but I'm certainly going to go because I know there are people there who care about me and they will cheer me up."

Imagine, then, a church filled with ministers and family. Each has a job, a task, a ministry. Some may be "full time" and some may be part time. Some may be obvious -- the preaching, the teaching, leading singing, that sort of thing -- and some may be less so, like the couple who invites a visitor over every Sunday after church for dinner and getting acquainted. Whatever it is, no one who calls this church "home" shows up without a ministry mindset. They're not there to be served, but to serve. And they're dedicated to that service because it is, after all, their own family members that they are ministering to. Paul wrote, "If anyone does not provide for his family and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever" (1 Tim 5:8), and these people take that quite seriously. So they provide care and concern, encouragement and exhortation. "Felt needs" aren't met by pastoral staff encouraging special programs because it's the function of family. In a church like this, people would be less likely to attend and more likely to fellowship, less likely to "church hop" and more likely to make it a church home. Which, of course, is the main idea.