quick thoughts on the church

September 7, 2010

One of my good friends is a man named Eddie Gibbs. For quite some time Eddie was the Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church Growth at the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary

He’s got a great thought about the church. He quips: In the 20th Century, what emerged in the Western church was a churchless mission and a missionless church.

In other words, the people who were truly engaging with the mission of God were often found in para-church organizations, but these organizations/people often lacked the community element that we as Christians need. On the flip side, churches, where there was often a strong community element and worship of God, lacked any engagement with God’s mission in the world He so loved.

I had the chance to spend some time with one of the key leaders in YWAM (one of the classic and most successful para-church ministries engaged with mission) last week and he said this: Today, there are over 3 million alumni in YWAM and more than one million of them are not engaged in the local church.

It’s just hard to feel at home in a church when mission is so far on the back-burner.

But my friend asked: What if we could do something about it?

Can you imagine what would happen if ONE MILLION missionally minded people started to engage with Missional Communities?

It would be absolutely stunning.