(As the leadership addresses issues regarding the building, I want to take time here to share and discuss issues regarding "space for 'church'")
One of the things that is so easy about life is to get stuck in a pattern.
Have you noticed? You get up at a certain time, go through the routine of getting to work.
It's kind of nice. You can put your mind on "cruise control."
It's like when I'm driving sometimes down the road and I'm thinking about something and all of a sudden I think, "How did I get here? Where am I going? Did I pass my turn?"
Routines can be helpfu. Sometimes that routine is incredibly helpful, because we know what to expect and what to plan for. We can more easily be at rest sometimes. Sometimes that rest turns to boredom, too, because we can go through it without much thought. We go through a routine and that routine becomes "the" way to do something.
I remember when I was first married I washed the dishes "wrong." As if the end result of a clean dish wasn't effective if the water and soap weren't put on and taken off in the correct way, or as if the scrubbing had to be done a certain direction with a certain sponge.
We get stuck pretty easily and get on cruise control. But we also critique other ways of doing things when it doesn't fit our own.
MOVING is one of those things that really really messes up those things you are stuck in.
Every time you move you have to re-evaluate how you do certain things because things are different. Simple things like putting the trash out can change. Maybe you live in an apartment and have a dumpster and you can take it out whenever. Or maybe you now have to set it out every Wednesday morning before 7am or you have to wait another week.
When you move, simple things like where the TV is placed. It changes how you behave sometimes.
I noticed that type of change in behavior when we moved to a place where we had a huge master bedroom. I mean...for us...it was huge. We put a TV way over in the other corner of the bedroom with a sitting area because it was like another room.
What that produced was a new morning routine on the days we didn't have to go to work. Our 4 year old would come in and tell us he was awake and he would turn on PBS cartoons in the room. Sometimes one of us would go get breakfast and bring it into the bedroom while the other stayed in bed and we just ate breakfast in bed, with the kids, with the morning cartoons on. Suddenly we were all "getting up together" in the same room. I don't know how it evolved into that routine, but that was the routine.
Moving even changes priorities on what furniture is important. A new space for this or that changes what is important. Even the color. And where do visitors come and sit?
Moving changes all your priorities. You learn what you missed about how you behaved as much as what you left behind.
You learn how you behave by moving and relocating and getting into a different physical setting but also a different relational setting.
OUR SPACE IMPACTS US...
So what if we moved our "church"space with us?
The space of a church impacts the body of Christ as well. The change of "stuff" and space changes relationship when a church moves or relocates. As I was pondering what a space does to a church, I am now pondering what relocating does to a church.
An ekklesia can get set in ways in a place, just like we do in our lives.
By moving an ekklesia alot of the priorities get evaluated and changed.
If we want to make sure we are building people and not spaces first, maybe the ekklesia should always be nomadic? If we are always nomadic, then we might become more aware of the value of the relationships. But maybe not. Maybe we would just hold on tighter to the stuff.
As I've said many times before, it seems that those who follow God (whether Old Testament or New Testament) are very nomadic.
Imagine an ekklesia that is nomadic. Never buys a building, but just moves as it is led and as the Spirit of God provides places to meet. Maybe leasing a space in an old strip mall, maybe an old abandoned church building, maybe share space with another church, maybe a warehouse... From neighborhood to neighborhood. From building to building. Maybe house to house.
Have you noticed? You get up at a certain time, go through the routine of getting to work.
It's kind of nice. You can put your mind on "cruise control."
It's like when I'm driving sometimes down the road and I'm thinking about something and all of a sudden I think, "How did I get here? Where am I going? Did I pass my turn?"
Routines can be helpfu. Sometimes that routine is incredibly helpful, because we know what to expect and what to plan for. We can more easily be at rest sometimes. Sometimes that rest turns to boredom, too, because we can go through it without much thought. We go through a routine and that routine becomes "the" way to do something.
I remember when I was first married I washed the dishes "wrong." As if the end result of a clean dish wasn't effective if the water and soap weren't put on and taken off in the correct way, or as if the scrubbing had to be done a certain direction with a certain sponge.
We get stuck pretty easily and get on cruise control. But we also critique other ways of doing things when it doesn't fit our own.
MOVING is one of those things that really really messes up those things you are stuck in.Every time you move you have to re-evaluate how you do certain things because things are different. Simple things like putting the trash out can change. Maybe you live in an apartment and have a dumpster and you can take it out whenever. Or maybe you now have to set it out every Wednesday morning before 7am or you have to wait another week.
When you move, simple things like where the TV is placed. It changes how you behave sometimes.
I noticed that type of change in behavior when we moved to a place where we had a huge master bedroom. I mean...for us...it was huge. We put a TV way over in the other corner of the bedroom with a sitting area because it was like another room.
What that produced was a new morning routine on the days we didn't have to go to work. Our 4 year old would come in and tell us he was awake and he would turn on PBS cartoons in the room. Sometimes one of us would go get breakfast and bring it into the bedroom while the other stayed in bed and we just ate breakfast in bed, with the kids, with the morning cartoons on. Suddenly we were all "getting up together" in the same room. I don't know how it evolved into that routine, but that was the routine.
Moving even changes priorities on what furniture is important. A new space for this or that changes what is important. Even the color. And where do visitors come and sit?
Moving changes all your priorities. You learn what you missed about how you behaved as much as what you left behind.
You learn how you behave by moving and relocating and getting into a different physical setting but also a different relational setting.
OUR SPACE IMPACTS US...
So what if we moved our "church"space with us?
The space of a church impacts the body of Christ as well. The change of "stuff" and space changes relationship when a church moves or relocates. As I was pondering what a space does to a church, I am now pondering what relocating does to a church.
An ekklesia can get set in ways in a place, just like we do in our lives.
By moving an ekklesia alot of the priorities get evaluated and changed.
If we want to make sure we are building people and not spaces first, maybe the ekklesia should always be nomadic? If we are always nomadic, then we might become more aware of the value of the relationships. But maybe not. Maybe we would just hold on tighter to the stuff.
As I've said many times before, it seems that those who follow God (whether Old Testament or New Testament) are very nomadic.
Imagine an ekklesia that is nomadic. Never buys a building, but just moves as it is led and as the Spirit of God provides places to meet. Maybe leasing a space in an old strip mall, maybe an old abandoned church building, maybe share space with another church, maybe a warehouse... From neighborhood to neighborhood. From building to building. Maybe house to house.
That is kind of what Solomon's Porch has done through their history as a body of Christ.
Sometimes moving could be done out of necessity. Sometimes because maybe there is no space to rent anymore, there is not enough room, or maybe there is a need for less room. Maybe spend less money this year by moving to a new location and neighborhood.
One thing about moving to a new neighborhood is that in order to "love your neighbor" you really have to get to know new folks. You have to get to know and offer what they need. When you move you are impacted not just by the new space but also the new people and their lives you are "moving into." You are impacted and impact that neighborhood somehow. Hopefully we do...I mean I hope the presence of an ekklesia in a certain space impacts people. And I hope we are impacted by the needs of the people near that space.
It seems with an ekklesia that is nomadic that the relationships would really become more central. The relationships would be impacted, but if after every few years the church relocated (either because it had to or felt a need to) wouldn't it require you to leave behind things that are not necessary and take things that are necessary? Maybe even certain relationships?
Priorities are re-evaluated each move.
Leave behind what's not important. Take what is important.
Take the people. Relationships grow. You learn each other more. You impact the people around you.
Nomadic ekklesia...something to think about...
Sometimes moving could be done out of necessity. Sometimes because maybe there is no space to rent anymore, there is not enough room, or maybe there is a need for less room. Maybe spend less money this year by moving to a new location and neighborhood.
One thing about moving to a new neighborhood is that in order to "love your neighbor" you really have to get to know new folks. You have to get to know and offer what they need. When you move you are impacted not just by the new space but also the new people and their lives you are "moving into." You are impacted and impact that neighborhood somehow. Hopefully we do...I mean I hope the presence of an ekklesia in a certain space impacts people. And I hope we are impacted by the needs of the people near that space.
It seems with an ekklesia that is nomadic that the relationships would really become more central. The relationships would be impacted, but if after every few years the church relocated (either because it had to or felt a need to) wouldn't it require you to leave behind things that are not necessary and take things that are necessary? Maybe even certain relationships?
Priorities are re-evaluated each move.
Leave behind what's not important. Take what is important.
Take the people. Relationships grow. You learn each other more. You impact the people around you.
Nomadic ekklesia...something to think about...
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