This Changes Everything

by Josh Duncan

Have you ever played the "What if" game? You know, it's the conversations where you think through all the "what if" scenarios. I'm constantly trying to stay one-step ahead on life, so I play this game quite often. I want to have a plan A, B, and sometimes C for situation 1, 2, and 3, but I've learned this is usually a waste of time in the end.

Here's a what if question for you to wrestle with... "What if you, me, and everyone else in America could no longer go to church as you do each week? Would you know how to follow Jesus if you didn't have a building to go to, couldn't go to worship services with awesome music and teaching, participate in organized ministries, etc?" What if "church" in America came under persecution, and we were forced to live as the church in China?

I know your first thought is probably along the lines of "Who really cares about this scenario? This will probably never happen anyway." If that's your thought, then I can't argue with your initial response, but there's a deeper issue behind this question: "Do you really know what it means to follow Jesus?" This is a question God asked me about a year ago. Honestly, I didn't think God needed to ask me that question. After all, I was planting a church, so of course I knew how to follow Jesus, right? That question was only the beginning of what God was trying to show me personally.

Here in America, particularly the south, I've come to realize that we think about 90% of what it means to follow Jesus involves going to church. The problem is, this isn't what the Bible says should be the main expression of our faith in Christ. Yes, we are supposed to gather together on Sunday, and we shouldn't forsake that, but if our identity in Christ is found in church-attendance, worship songs, ministry-involvement, etc then we're greatly mistaken. When will we lose our obsession with "church" and start surrendering our lives to Jesus so that our faith is overflowing throughout the rhythms of life?

This past Sunday, we defined church from a biblical perspective, and to be honest, this definition changes everything. We must stop reading Scripture with the "song of church" that's stuck in our heads. Church isn't something we go to or an event we attend during the week. It's who we are. The word "church" is actually "Ecclesia" (Ekklesia) which is a combination of two words meaning "Called out" or the "assembling of the called  out ones." When Jesus said He would build His church in Matthew 16:18, He wasn't talking about what we've come to know as "church" today. He was talking about mobilizing a movement of people, a spiritual family, who was called out to join Him in His mission. As you come to grips that much of what we know of and do as the church isn't exactly what Jesus said He would build, you are left with two options: 1) Just settle for doing what we've always done OR 2) Do something to get on track.

For us as a church family, we're surrendering fully to this idea of being the church. I challenged our people to let this past Sunday be the last time they go to church. It's time we change what we care about and how we view Jesus, our relationship with Him, our relationships with each other, and His mission on this planet! We're allowing the words of Christ to not only impact the way we think of church, but the way we act as a church as well.

Some may say, "you're just playing with the words. Everyone knows we should be the church." Actually, no. We're not just playing with the words. For us, this is serious. We're making radical shifts in our behaviors. We are what we say (check out Matthew 12:34-35), so we're changing how we describe church and how we act as the church.

If you'd like, you can watch the message from Sunday by clicking HERE and hear about these shifts for yourself. I'll also be discussing these shifts over the next few weeks through this blog.