A woman approached me after a recent speech in Fort Collins, Colo., with a single question:
“How do I find a church? I’m so disappointed with my previous attempts.”
Her question reminded me of an experience I had as a Baylor University ministerial student facing the same dilemma.
“Where are you going?” I asked my college roommate, Terry, as he readied to leave our pew in the middle of a sermon about the Church of Thessalonica.
“I need to find a relevant church where I can invite my friends,” he said in a voice loud enough to awaken those not sharing our new pastor’s interest in ancient cities.
With that, Terry bolted from the pew with his red-faced roommate chasing behind him. After all, he had the car.
If you are like Terry and have bolted from your share of spiritual communities, let me recommend three qualities to look for in a church, synagogue, mosque or other place.
Look for a place that will reach up, reach in and reach out.
While those titles were popularized by the book “The Passionate Church: The Art Of Life-Changing Discipleship” by Mike Breen and Walt Kallestad, the concepts have been around since the early church.
Reaching up means we initiate a conscious contact with God. This is worship. I consider things like music, Communion and prayer as up-reach.
This is the place most people talk about a heavenly feeling. If we place too much emphasis on up-reach, however, we become like the old saying, “Too heavenly minded, and no earthly good.”
Reaching in involves the strengthening of relationships between the members. Some churches do this through small groups or religious education. These groups come together for regular study of devotional material related to their tradition’s religious book. When a church spends too much time on reaching in, they become cliquish, egotistical and self-absorbed.
Reaching out means the church helps those outside their walls: spiritually, socially, financially and medically. My home church gives 10 percent of its income to the community. Once my pastor even gave away “spiritual stimulus money” to the parishioners and asked them to reinvest it in the community.
Qualities to seek in a place of worship
A woman approached me after a recent speech in Fort Collins, Colo., with a single question:
“How do I find a church? I’m so disappointed with my previous attempts.”
Her question reminded me of an experience I had as a Baylor University ministerial student facing the same dilemma.
“Where are you going?” I asked my college roommate, Terry, as he readied to leave our pew in the middle of a sermon about the Church of Thessalonica.
“I need to find a relevant church where I can invite my friends,” he said in a voice loud enough to awaken those not sharing our new pastor’s interest in ancient cities.
With that, Terry bolted from the pew with his red-faced roommate chasing behind him. After all, he had the car.
If you are like Terry and have bolted from your share of spiritual communities, let me recommend three qualities to look for in a church, synagogue, mosque or other place.
Look for a place that will reach up, reach in and reach out.
While those titles were popularized by the book “The Passionate Church: The Art Of Life-Changing Discipleship” by Mike Breen and Walt Kallestad, the concepts have been around since the early church.
Reaching up means we initiate a conscious contact with God. This is worship. I consider things like music, Communion and prayer as up-reach. This is the place most people talk about a heavenly feeling. If we place too much emphasis on up-reach, however, we become like the old saying, “Too heavenly minded, and no earthly good.”
Reaching in involves the strengthening of relationships between the members. Some churches do this through small groups or religious education. These groups come together for regular study of devotional material related to their tradition’s religious book. When a church spends too much time on reaching in, they become cliquish, egotistical and self-absorbed.
Reaching out means the church helps those outside their walls: spiritually, socially, financially and medically. My home church gives 10 percent of its income to the community. Once my pastor even gave away “spiritual stimulus money” to the parishioners and asked them to reinvest it in the community.
In my opinion, many churches have a dismal record in outreach. In an effort to compete with the business world, they have expensive buildings and high salaries and there is little left to give to those less fortunate.
Reaching out must, of course, be balanced or the church might as well become the Red Cross.
Good outreach is how a church grows and gets better at its mission. As I studied church growth in seminary, I was surprised to learn that most people come to church, not because they love their leader, the music or the pretty building. More than 70 percent come because a friend or neighbor reached out and invited them.
Wow, this is exactly what my Terry told me about wanting a church where he was proud to invite his friends. Like me, he wanted a place where his friends could hear a message with life-changing potential.
Where did Terry take me that night?
We squealed out of the church parking lot in his Chevy Nova. We drove as far out of academia as we could get and turned into the gravel parking lot of a Baptist church in a little Texas town called Lacy Lakeview.
It was there we were relieved to find a church that was willing to reach up to a God of grace, reach in to teach God’s forgiveness and reach out with love toward all.
