Snap Shot

This is another letter i wrote right before leaving the church. I passed this out along with the “Quitting church” letter. This is a snap shot of the vision I have for my ministry. I don’t know what God wants me to do exactly, so this may be a mixture of my ideas and ideas God gave me, but I do know God has called me to something and I want to be obedient to Gods calling. I also know things don’t work out exactly as planned and as the ministry grows things will change accordingly. So please keep that in mind and I hope you see my heart in this glimpse of my vision. I think church, as we know it has a place, but as for myself, a Christian for as long as I can remember, I find myself wanting more. Not more stuff to do, I have plenty of things to do, but more than what I have been doing and getting with church. Not just more but different. Not the same old because that is not what reaches people. The same old doesn’t hold people. If we don’t make it relevant to people, they will leave. Relevance doesn’t have to mean a bare bones version of the gospel, it means take the ancient teachings and tell them how to use it today. That being said my vision involves more of the church as a people and less as an organization. Meaning I hope to build a community that involves members of different bodies to make us understand we are one body. We may talk about being one body and one bread, but it seems we don’t really associate with people who don’t go to our building or even know others in other buildings. I want others to go to the church they feel they are called to, but to come together in community and fellowship and celebrate our unity as a Church. I also want people to come that do not go to a specific body. They may feel disenchanted with the church and just want someone to talk to and be real with. They may feel they can’t or have not gotten that from the traditional church. I want this to be a “church” for those who are tired of church. For those burned but still want and love Jesus. We as believers are one and I don’t believe we should divide. Hopefully this community will also have times of fellowship with meals and celebrating and not just studies and meetings. I dream of getting together with members of the community and asking what they need and being able to provide for that need as a group. Like the church in acts, I want to make sure we all have food and can pay our bills and if one cannot we gather together to help them. That is how I see us ministering to other Christians but what about others? What about Outreach? I want to change the way we think about outreach. I don’t want to be the street preacher or the track hander or the door knocker. I especially don’t want to invite people to church. I don’t believe the church is there to specifically reach people. It is not made for conversion, but to edify and build up believers. I want to bring the church to them. Not the building of course or even an organization, but I want to bring the people of God to them. Bring the church to where they live.  I want to bring the body of Christ to where they are. To reach them in their culture not drag them to ours. Jesus had crowds following Him, He did not beg people to come to the temple or listen to Him speak. He spoke in public and people listened and followed. I want to start conversing in public about Jesus and see what happens. I want to see a group talking about spiritual matters in a real way in a secular setting and people being drawn to the conversation. People will overhear and ask us what we are talking about, who we are and what we are doing.  I want to bring our community out to coffee shops and restaurants and maybe eventually to bars. Jesus was associated with the scum of his day to the point where the people called Him a “glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of the worst sort of sinners!” I can just see the day where a good meaning religious person calls me, or better yet calls me behind my back, a drunk, or a sinner or a heretic. To that I will say thank you for the comparison. If you can see that Jesus in me I will know I am on the right track. I am not trying to attack the current church, I am just seeing a need for change and I am seeing a vision that I believe God gave me, and I believe that with all my heart. Another part of outreach I want to attempt is random acts of kindness. Going out as a group and doing acts for people that will help them and leaving them a note asking if we can be any more help. This will open doors and let people know there are Christians out there who are good and kind and loving. Not all of us are as they perceive. They see us as narrow minded, hypocritical, judgmental and hateful and I want to change that. Even if we never pray the prayer with them we are doing good. We are changing their perceptions and maybe we are just planting a seed, or watering it, and I am fine with that. Too many Christians are obsessed with getting them saved and people can sense that. They don’t want to be a notch in our belt; they want to be people who are loved. Matthew 5:16 says “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” I don’t want to shove Jesus down their throat I want them to see our light and let the Holy Spirit draw them. Let God do His job and we can do ours which is using our light to show them Christ. I have felt called to something different since I’ve been in youth group. I have felt I am supposed to do more then play drums in the worship band or teach Sunday school. I enjoy serving in the church but I feel called to do more. I was perusing a minister’s license thinking it was what I needed, but I know we are all ministers no matter what paper we have. My whole point is Christian unity without the walls of the church between us. I feel bad saying it, but in my opinion, the church has not fed me lately or given me the opportunity to feed. People will say I don’t feed or get fed because I am not putting an effort into it or I’m doing things wrong or I’m not praying or reading my Bible enough, and maybe it’s true, but the structure just doesn’t feel right to me anymore. I can’t, in good conscience, put myself even more into something when I don’t believe that is the best or only way to do it. I’m saying maybe there is a reason I don’t want to do it this way anymore.  I don’t want the religious system or the current structure anymore. I think I’m giving up church to follow Jesus.

~ by kameronmessmer on April 7, 2009.