Reimagining Our Church Places

by Lance Finley, CGGC Executive Director

Many of our churches have under-utilized space, or maybe even entirely unused space. Perhaps you’ve thought of how to put that space to work during the Monday-Saturday timeframe when that space is mostly unoccupied or underutilized. You might dream about leveraging the existing bethel to meet a need in the community, such as operating a food or clothing pantry or opening a homework center or afterschool program. Maybe it would involve utilizing space in the facility to create a third-space in your community where people might gather and meet, such as a coffee house, laundromat, or café. In fact, we explored these very ideas in the September/October edition of The Global Advocate. All of these are necessary and important as we think about space and reimagining how we might use what the Lord has blessed us with for kingdom purposes.

But I believe we need to think even broader about the space of our churches when we reimagine for God’s kingdom agenda, because the church isn’t actually a building. It’s easy to fixate on the bethel or the church building, but we need to be reminded that the church is actually a people, not a place. You and I are the church. We may gather in a building or bethel, but we are the church. If we are the church, and we’re to leverage our gifts, talents, and assets for kingdom purposes, then it stands to reason that even our homes, or indeed, any place we find ourselves, become a space that we need to reimagine and redeem.

Reimagining our homes for kingdom purposes

I believe we’re living in an era where the front doors of our homes will become the front door to our faith communities. “Invest and Invite” was a mantra of the church growth age where leaders encouraged their people to love and care for friends, family, and neighbors to gain credibility and to invite them to their local church gathering. That was the aim, “Get them through the doors of the church, and we’ll take care of the rest.” Today’s culture, with its heightened suspicion of institutions, will require a different approach to reaching people. People don’t want to come to our church building because that’s where they get sold stuff, but they might be willing to come to your home, where you have to be real.

Throughout the New Testament, particularly the book of Acts, we see evidence that homes were a vital element in the spread of the Gospel and the growth of the church. Acts 2:46-47 “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 5:42 sheds light on how the apostles worked, “Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.” The stories of Cornelius in Acts 10 and Lydia in Acts 16 certainly give evidence that the early followers of Jesus considered their homes to be tools to be used to demonstrate and proclaim the Good News.

I have observed a similar commitment as I’ve interacted with the global church. It’s not uncommon to find brothers and sisters in Asia gathering in the home of a fellow believer for their weekly worship and fellowship. I’ve often found that our brothers and sisters in other places in the world are quick to offer their homes for worship and have even observed some who added on a room or a covered porch to accommodate the growth of the local church. Similarly, I’ve known of many instances abroad where families in a local church donated their family property in order to construct a permanent church structure in the community. They view everything they have as belonging to God and available for His purposes.

I think we have the opportunity to follow the example we find in scripture as well as that of our global brothers and sisters to offer up even our homes for the sake of the kingdom of God. One way to do this is through the simple gift of hospitality or welcoming the stranger. Instead of “investing and inviting,” perhaps we should leverage our efforts to merely invite others into our homes and lives. This could be around the dinner table, the fire pit, or on the patio out back. Are we inviting others into our lives in order to love them and demonstrate the level of welcome and acceptance that Jesus has shown to us? How could you start small but start to leverage your home as an embassy of the kingdom of God? Could you open your home once a week or twice a month to show the kindness and love of Jesus to others?

There are limitless possibilities when we start reimagining our homes to be more useful to Jesus and His kingdom. Here are just a few:

John and Sally are new to their neighborhood and don’t know many of the other neighbors on their street. They decide to open their home for Taco Tuesdays and invite their neighborhood to join them for dinner and conversation every Tuesday evening. While it started slow, they persisted and have watched about a dozen or so of their neighbors regularly join them. Others have started to pitch in with the food, and over the course of several months of gathering, they’ve come to know their neighbors and learn more about their stories as well as their hopes, fears, and dreams. John and Sally pray for these neighbors regularly and have found the opportunity to have several spiritual conversations as their new friends have found their hopeful aspect on life odd but refreshing.

Dan’s wife, Joan, is an ER nurse, which means there are a lot of weekends when she’s at work and he’s home alone. Dan spends a lot of time tinkering in his garage with his classic car, and he’s found that both his neighbors and friends always like to stop by when he’s washing and waxing on Saturday afternoon. Dan saw an opportunity to be a little more intentional and started extending invitations to some friends from work as well as a couple of his neighbors to join him regularly for tinkering and grilling. At least two Saturday afternoons a month, while Joan is at work, Dan hosts a growing group of car and meat enthusiasts. He spends the better part of the afternoon working on their cars, enjoying something off the grill, and talking a lot about life. Dan’s been surprised at how open everyone’s been and even how a couple of his gruffer friends have quietly asked for prayer after the other guys have cleared out for the day.

Sara is a stay-at-home mom to four kids who are in elementary school. Her husband, Scott, is an accountant for a local CPA firm. Sara has opened her home to some of the other moms and families in her neighborhood for a while. It started with occasional play dates with the kids in the back yard, and now it’s usually coffee and conversation a couple of mornings a week with five other moms in her neighborhood. Two of the other moms are Jesus followers. The group shares their struggles of motherhood over coffee with lots of laughing and occasional tears. They’ve grown to support each other. Whether it’s pulling a meal together for the mom who is down with the flu or helping shuttle kids back and forth to school and activities, they’ve become “their people” for one another. Sara has been surprised but honored that one of the moms has turned to her with lots of questions about faith, raising kids, and marriage.

Jimmy and Toni have lived in their neighborhood for five years with their three kids. Two years ago, in a desire for something more than just Sunday morning church experience, they reached out to two other couples and began what became known as Friday Night House Church at their home. The three families gather every Friday night at Jim and Toni’s house. They share a simple meal together. They process the previous week noting where they saw God at work in their lives or where they might be struggling in their faith. They spend some time studying a Gospel text and asking two questions: 1) What is God saying to us through this text? 2) What are we going to do about it? They close every Friday night with a time of prayer for one another and for their neighborhood. Over time, they’ve added a few folks: their neighbor Linda who recently lost her husband, Jill and Sebastian who recently moved into the neighborhood, and the Jones family too. They care for one another, and they regularly serve their larger community together as well. Jim and Toni have recently asked some friends to consider joining them on Friday nights to be equipped to start a similar gathering in another part of their small, midwestern community.

How might you reimagine the space the Lord has given you in order to leverage it for kingdom impact? How would your local congregation be different if you were able to mobilize all of God’s people using all the resources He’s blessed you with collectively? How would your community change if the people of God were mobilized throughout every nook and cranny of the place you call home? It’s time to reimagine.