Oh, it’s the catch phrase of the decade. Stop going to church and “be” the church. We need to preach this. We need to live this.
Yesterday Lori called me and told me that her employer, First Methodist Church in McKinney, might need to use my 16 ft. trailer. She said she volunteered it for “us”. Then she said … I volunteered you to … to pull it with your truck. I was excited … didn’t know what I was going to do with it … but it sounded adventurous. FUMC had been collecting stuff to go to Galveston Island … diapers, toilet paper, peanut butter, water … in fact 3 trailers worth. She called back and said they needed a covered trailer and alas mine is not a covered trailer. They left yesterday to distribute.
It’s true that Journey Church does not have a lot of people attending at this point. We average 10 on Sunday morning. It sort of reminds me of Steve Sjogren when he started a Vineyard church in Cincinnati. After 18 months … they had 37 people attending.
Then Sjogren returned to the Gospels and saw that Jesus served everywhere he went. Then the 37 went into their community to serve, including scouring the restrooms at local bars while disbelieving employees looked on.
That’s right … he gathered up his little band of people and they started cleaning toilets in bars. 18 years later … 7,000 people go out every Saturday for 2 hours to serve others. Serve Fest is what they call it.
You want to know why I started Journey Church … this is why. To serve, like Jesus.
wg < —
wogblog 
September 25, 2008 at 8:42 am
This encourages me so much, for 2 reasons. 1, after 24 months, we have 5 families– about a dozen people. Business-wise, that would seem like a re-evaluation point; do we continue on? Spirit-led-wise, apparently it’s the “keep going” point. So hearing the number you gave for Vinyard is encouraging!
BE the Church. THat’s what I’m talkin’ about.
Have you read Revolution, but Jim Barna?
September 25, 2008 at 12:32 pm
It is surprising to note that the majority of churches in America have less that 90 people a week in attendance. If we change our focus on how many people are coming to how many people are going out to be ministers … it’s mo better.
I pass by several churches on Sunday morning that have just a few cars … we would look at that and go … oh, they must be dead. It may not be.