1. Community
You might be able to download an artfully captured message and awesomely engineered music, but you can’t download community—at least not the deepest form of community.
And that’s what the church should be best at.
Don’t get me wrong, online community is great. I have thousands of connections online with people I would otherwise never meet. Some of the connections mean a great deal to me.
But they are not nearly as deep as the connections I have with people I know in my local church. People I meet with face to face. People I’m doing life with.
Churches that deepen community will always do a better job of getting people to gather than churches who don’t.
Consequently, if you still see church as a random gathering of dozens, hundreds or thousands of people, perhaps you’re creating an experience that can be downloaded.
But if you give people meaningful spaces in which to gather, to build relationship (small groups remains incredible for this) and to experience things together as a community, you will be getting back to the kind of experiences the early church knew and that will define the future church.
And don’t miss this—churches that broker authentic community create experiences the world is craving
Before you think you’ve passed the test, dig deeper.
Many churches claim to be great at fellowship, but they’re not. They’re great at cliques.
But a church that brokers authentic community for dozens, hundreds or thousands is offering people something nothing else can compare to. Especially because Christ is at the center
of that gathering.
It’s the community so many are longing for but no one seems to know how to find.
Leadership Question: Are we moving people toward authentic community in everything we do as a church?
2. Presence
One of the theological questions this discussion raises is this: “Is God present differently when the church gathers than he is in our personal lives?”
I think the answer is yes.
If you look at how God moved in the early church, it was often through groups of people. It’s not that God wasn’t with people individually—he was, and is—it’s just that the corporate presence is different and powerful and often changes the world.
I agree that often we misuse and abuse the concept of God’s presence as church leaders. We think God was present because the room was full, because the preacher was strong, or because the offering was good.
It’s not nearly that simply or straightforward.
But sometimes God is present—meaningfully, powerfully—when the church gathers.
While you can’t engineer God’s presence, you can pray for it and anticipate it.
When we gather for communion, when we invite God to be present, when we make space in our services for God to speak … something often happens that you can’t quite control.
Even practically speaking, the focused attention a physical gathering demands can draw people into greater connection with God than those moments when we distractedly listen to a message at home while we’re frantically making dinner for the kids.
And remember … unchurched people long for an experience with God. If the church can’t facilitate that, who can?
The church should be the best in the world at moving people into the presence of the living God.
Churches that facilitate this will simply reach more unchurched people than those who don’t.
Leadership Question: Have we invited God into this and left space for him to move?
