It happens so quickly!

Yesterday the Area One Church of the Brethren Pastors gathered at my dad's and discussed chapters 5 and 6 of the book AND : The gathered AND scattered church by Matt Smay and Hugh Halter.  Always good to be pushed to think in new ways!

There are two major moves of the church.  Gathering for worship, fellowship, growth.   AND Scattering to witness, disciple, and serve.  Most new churches do both with ease and somewhat equally, but it doesn't take long until the shift happens and we find that we are leaning more heavily toward the Gathering side.

I have witnessed this at CoJ.  Before we bought our building we were much more weighted toward the Scattering side.  Actually I would say we were more balanced between the two.  Now that we have our buildning... we have shifted... not intentionally... it just happens... but we are more heavily weighted toward the Gathering side and often at the expense of the Scattering side.  And moving the whole church back toward balance is like turning the titanic around on a dime.  The only way I see balance coming is to do it the way Jesus did... by discipling a small group who then disciples a small group... and before long we have found some balance.

As I walked this morning at the mall, I listened to an Andy Stanley sermon in which he told a true story that happened to him that illustrates this unbalance at it's worst!   Andy told of traveling with his dad, Charles Stanley to a church where they were invited to come to.  He said they had not told the pastor they would come, just stopped by... they were ushered to their seats... the last row on the isle.  During the service, Andy realized that all the front rows were full and then there were many empty rows between the front full rows and their row.  By the way, they were the only ones in their section of the church.  He thought it was odd... until the time came for communion... the ushers served all the front rows and then when they got to the empty rows, turned around and went back up front.  Excluding Andy and Charles.  Later, the pastor told them this was by design.  The ushers intentionally seat guests in the back so that they won't take communion since they aren't members of the church.

How sad!

Let me be clear, that gathering is good... and necessary... but NOT at the expense of scattering!  BOTH are necessary and important.  We need to gather AND scatter!