The Importance of Church Community

There is a tendency among some people who claim to be followers of Christ to think that they can live the Christian life without being connected to a local body of believers. This connection is much more than arriving a few minutes after the service has started and then quickly heading back out the door until the following week, or schedules allow for another visit. John writes, "... that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you, so that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:1-3).

The point that John is making is that believers are to have a connection with other Christians. Those who are false Christians leave the church fellowship (1 John 2:19). It is within the local church body that followers of Christ have the opportunity to get to know, serve and love other followers of Christ.

One of the reasons for constructing the lobby area with tables and coffee is so that there is a place where it is possible to sit down at a table and spend some time getting to know other followers of Christ. It is a place to connect, to share praises and prayer, and you are encouraged to take the time to make it work. This might mean arriving earlier so as to have some time to connect or perhaps even staying a bit later. (Perhaps we need to rename it to "Cafe" which gives more of the idea that this is a place to linger and spend some time investing in the lives of other believers). Obviously, not all connection needs to happen within the walls of the church building, but this is certainly a good place to look for opportunities to invest in the lives of people who are part of the Valley Grace community.

Valley Grace Hayride clip

Thanks to all who made this possible, and for those who participated. What a great evening God gave us!

The Indispensable Church

"If your church closed tomorrow, would anybody notice?" -- thought provoking question. How would we answer it? To phrase the question another way, "How can the church become indispensable to the community?" Chuck Warnock points out that years ago the Celtic Christian abbeys were built at crossroads or next to a village. The purpose was so that the abbey would become the center of the community. As Warnock writes, the abbey "became necessary for the community's survival because they fed people, cared for the sick, gave shelter to the homeless, provided refuge for the weary and wanted, and lived out the Gospel in tangible and essential ministries."

The church does not exist merely to perpetuate an institution, but to impact a community for Christ. Warnock goes on to write, "I want us to touch more lives during the week than we have bodies in pews on Sunday. I want people to ask us to stay in business because we've made a difference in their lives." We want to position ourselves part of the body of Christ to make a difference in our community. As we are involved in challenging times, here is our opportunity to serve our community and make a significant impact for Christ. Please pray that God might grant us the privilege to have the same kind of impact for Christ, that our Celtic brothers did centuries ago.

Have Ideas? You are encouraged to list your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section. (Here is Warnock's full post)

Younger Unchurched Perspective on the Church

There is a quote that is being attributed to the younger unchurched which says this: "we like Jesus, but we don't like the church."

That statement, of course, raises a good number of questions. But it is good for us to listen to why many young people are saying this. How is it possible for us to reach the younger unchurched if we don't understand their concerns. One of the big issues that is raised over and over again is that there are hypocrites in the church. This doesn't mean that the unchurched are looking for perfect people, but they are looking for people who are genuine -- who are authentic. The hypocrisy charge comes in when we give the impression that we have it all figured out instead of saying "I am still a work in progress." It is acknowledging that we still have faults and failures but Christ is in the process of transforming us and we aren't what we used to be. We are working on the problem areas of our lives under the power of the Holy Spirit.

According to a study done by Ed Stetzer, two-thirds of the younger unchurched say that the church is full of hypocrites. On the othere hand, 61 percent of the younger unchurched say they would be willing to study the Bible if a friend asked them to. There is a willingness to learn about Biblical truth. You can read more or listen to a radio broadcast here.

Making Our Church Guest-Friendly

We have been experiencing a number of guests in recent weeks and it is good for us to be reminded of how to take care of our guests. Here are some ways you can help to make our guests feel welcome. (Note: all churches think they are friendly, but often times they are friendly to people who have been attending for a long period of time - not new people.) Our desire is to befriend people to Christ!

The first 12 minutes will greatly influence whether or not they return. As they say, "you never get a second chance to make a first impression." When an unchurched person visits church for the first time, their greatest emotion is fear. What will people think? What are they going to do? "Am I going to have to sign something, sing something, sacrifice something, or say something?" They don't know what is going on and it is unnerving.

So our first goal is to help guests (let's not use the term "visitors") to relax. Guests must be relaxed if we are going to be able to communicate with them. Here are some suggestions for you to help make guests welcome:

* Reserve the best parking spot for guests. It just shows you are thinking of them.
* Station greeters outside your building. These greeters need to be strategically placed around the campus to greet guests and help them find their way into the building.
* Set up an information table (we now have a Welcome Center!)
* Have taped music playing when people enter. In America almost every public building has music playing. An interesting observation - if you play soft music, people talk softly. If you play loud music, people talk louder.
* Allow guests to remain anonymous in the service. Don't make them stand up and introduce themselves!
* Offer a warm, casual public welcome that relaxes people. If you want guests to feel welcome, to you have to be at ease yourself. We might say, "If this is your first time here at Valley Grace, we are glad you are here. We want you to take a deep breath, sit back, relax and enjoy the service."
* Begin and end each service by having people greet each other. Five times in the New Testament Christians are told to greet one another and share affection. On your way out after the service, look for someone to greet that you don't know - then you can reconnect with your friends.
*Offer a refreshment table at each service. Today in our society, it doesn't seem appropriate to just stand in a crowd doing nothing (this may be a bit of a challenge for us right now with space considerations).

Thank you for helping us welcome guests who are in search of a relationship with God and a church family to support them in their spiritual journey. If you want to read more on this, you can go here which is the source for this information.
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The Untold Story: Muslims Converting Worldwide

David Dunlap in his newsletter of Sept. 1, 2008 writes that the main news media has missed one of the more important stories to come out of the Arab world. "Firsthand reports are indicating that Muslims are converting to Christ in large numbers in Arab lands. The news media continues to report that Islam is the world's fastest growing religion." There certainly are statistics to demonstrate this and one of the main reasons is because of a high birthrate among Muslim families. But Dunlap goes on to write, "the truth is, however, that Islam as a religion, when measured by conversion increase, is not growing but rather decreasing.

More and more Muslims than ever before are becoming disillusioned with Islam. An increasing number of Muslims are questioning the validity of the Qur'an and the extremist teaching of Islamic teachers. Many are finding that the mechanistic rituals of praying five times per day, reciting verses that they do not understand, and frequent fasting are not a means to becoming more spiritual, and are taking a serious look at Christianity. Every day thousands of Muslim intellectuals are leaving Islam."

What I found to be very informative were the reasons that Muslims were drawn to the Christ of Christianity. Here are the three major reasons as listed from the research of Dr. J. Dudley Woodberry, professor of Islamic Studies at Fuller Seminary in California.

1. The Number One Reason why Muslims chose to become Christians was the lifestyle of the Christians living among the Muslims. Muslim converts noted that "there was no gap between the moral profession and the practice of Christians" they knew. There was a significant contrast between the love demonstrated by the followers of Christ with the unloving treatment among Muslims. Other converts were impressed that in Christianity women were treated as equals and enjoy loving marriages. They also noted that Christian workers chose to live a simple lifestyle and not to intentionally offend their Muslim neighbors.

2. The Second Reason why Muslims chose to become Christians was that they saw the "power of God in answered prayer." Christians prayed for their neighbors even though they were Muslim and God had intervened in situations. Many converts mentioned an unhappiness with Islam itself with the uncertainty of salvation. Most of the emphasis in Islam was upon punishment and Christianity told of a God who loved them and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for sins. Obviously the picture of Christ in the Qur'an and that found in Scripture is very different.

3. The Third Reason (and identified as the most important) why Muslims were choosing to follow Christ is that "when Christ's love transforms committed Christians into a loving community, many Muslims (identified) a desire to join such a fellowship." Woodberry writes, "When the church is being the church, testifying of the love of Christ and his transforming power, then Muslims are drawn to salvation in Christ" (J. Dudley Woodberry, Russell G. Shubin, and G. Marks, "Why Muslims Follow Jesus," Christianity Today, 24 October 2007, pp. 80-85)

What can we learn from this in order to reach our own neighborhoods, regardless of religious background for Christ? We see the importance of living out Christ's desire for His church to be a caring community. We see the importance of living out our Christian beliefs in the world -- that we truly are followers of Christ and His teachings which affects every dimension of our lives. We also see the importance of demonstrating care through prayer for our neighbors, coworkers and their needs -- even if they are not followers of Christ, but asking if we might have the privilege to pray for their need. Included in that is looking for opportunities to tell people of God's love for them as demonstrated through the Christ. Christianity is designed to be attractive to any people, in any culture, when it is truly lived out. May God help us to do that for Him!