Vision Comes Into View

Conventional Model vs. Biblical Model

CHURCH - What does that word mean? To most, it implies or refers to a place or an event. In reality though, it's neither. The church is the Body of Christ. From the very beginning the church was called to be mobile, not institutional. The Gospel has always been spread through dangerous movement, not comfortable complacency. Jesus NEVER said, "No one comes to me unless the church first attracts them". He told his disciples to "Go" and "tell people about me everywhere", not to think of new and creative ways to attract and lure them in. I know, our methods of sharing the Gospel and carrying out our mission as His church are always going to be changing as the culture changes and people change. But if we're being honest - brutally honest! - aren't many churches today acting more like "safe havens", creating places where 'Christians' can gather away from the very people we are called to reach? Aren't countless amounts of time, energy, and money being spent on trying to figure out the latest, greatest way of attracting people to our "church"? The answer sadly is "Yes".  In my message yesterday (Click HERE to listen to the podcast) I talked about 2 very distinct models of the church (that I borrowed from Jeff Vanderstelt): the Conventional Model and the Biblical Model. You can see this in the picture above. Let me explain.

The Conventional Model says, "The Pastor's at the church. We go TO the church, give our money, and the Pastor gets paid to do the work of the church. We go home. Maybe we come back on Wednesday night. But the Pastor's always there, doing the "work" of the church." I know this sounds old school to many of you - and this of course is the extreme - but some variation of this is going on in churches all over the place still today. 

The Biblical Model teaches us that "The church is led by Pastor(s) (plural). We are part of the church. We give our treasure, our time, energy, talents, and LIVES to the church for the sake of the Kingdom. As the Holy Spirit works in and through us this divine inertia is created that launches and propels us OUT into the world. The Pastors are there to equip us to do the work of the church. Why? Because we ARE the church!" Are we equipping people to "come and gather" or to "go and make disciples"?

A great blueprint for the Biblical Model looks something like this:
Matthew 28:19 (Acts 1:8) - Acts 2:41-47 - Ephesians 4:11-13 - Philippians 1:27
Every church is UNIQUE! Every Christ-follower is a missionary!

Here at The Brook, our Vision::Mission is clear. We are called to:
"Equip God's People to Bring His Kingdom Everywhere We Go!"


More to come...