Movements & Monuments
It all started for me in the summer of 1997. I was working for a newspaper in downtown Jackson, TN when the prominent downtown church packed up and moved out of the downtown area to relocate outside of the city, far away from people and places that most needed the Kingdom of God living and breathing in their neighborhood. I'll never forget the procession that they had planned for their final day in the old building. After services on that Sunday everyone piled into their cars to form a parade toward their new building. Traffic came to a halt for about 7 miles as a parade of about 1000 Lexus' & BMW's & SUV's made their pilgrimage.
Very soon after this I felt God defining my ministerial calling to that of a church planter who would intentionally bring the Kingdom into the forgotten places and to the hearts and minds of the forgotten people. I remember driving around downtown Jackson looking for empty store fronts that I could rent and open up to the hookers and dealers and gang-bangers and homeless as a place where they could experience the love and restoration that is found in Christ and in community with those who know him.
This began my church-planting ministry which didn’t come to fruition in Jackson, but did very soon after emerge in Columbus, GA and later in Carbondale, IL. As I’ve spent the past 10 months or so in Augusta, GA listening for God’s direction for the next chapter of our ministry, I’ve begun to notice a re-kindling of that frustration I felt in Jackson, TN as I live among a quarter-million or so people. That frustration is once again a shaping force in the church we are about to begin forming here. A church that will be for the unchurched. A church in which the churched see themselves as missionaries to the city rather than privileged card-carrying members of the club.
I just don’t get it sometimes…often times. All around me, almost everywhere I look I see churches filled with Christians who have drawn away from the world around them, tucked themselves away in an insulated, out-of-sight cocoon where they don’t have to actually interact with anyone who is not a Christian, to gorge themselves (they call it “being fed”) on teaching, polish their monuments, perfect their personal preferential styles, and never give a second thought to the hopelessness, fear, death, and destruction that is going on right outside their closed door.
Christ has called us to be the makers of movements, yet we occupy ourselves with the making of monuments. A monument can be a building, a pulpit, an organ, a pew, a musical style, a baptismal font (remind me to tell you my absurd baptismal font story sometime), or a multi-million dollar "prayer tower" like one that currently defiles the skyline in Columbus, GA, or anything else that we erect and revere (all for the Glory of God of course!) I was recently reading through the Book of Discipline for my particular denomination and came across all of the liturgies that are written for the purpose of “dedicating” buildings and instruments and furniture and thought to myself, “How silly.” Of course we need to remember that everything placed in our hands by God is meant to be used for His purposes. But when all of this ceremony is carried out by a church that has isolated itself from the people who need Christ most…the whole thing smells of hypocrisy. It’s like saying to God, “We dedicate all of our furniture and instruments to you…but we have no intention of using them for the purpose that matters most to you; seeking and saving those who are lost.”
I’m reminded of the time Peter, James, & John stood with Jesus on the mountain and experienced with him a visitation of Moses & Elijah and a voice booming from Heaven. Peter’s first thought was, “Lord, we have to build a monument to memorialize this holy moment (my paraphrase)!” Jesus, on the other hand, had other plans…to get off the mountain, get back to the "sinners;" the hookers & thieves, and continue getting the movement underway.
A movement begins small; with one person, then three, then twelve, then one hundred twenty, then a few thousand and it continues “moving,” refusing to turn inward, refusing to be distracted by the building of monuments, until everyone who can be touched by the movement is reached. The church Jesus inaugurated is a movement than began with him and twelve others, swept the world, and continues today. It is a movement intended to put followers of Christ face-to-face with hurting people who are far from God so that we can be agents of reconciliation, love, and restoration from God to those people.
I’m amazed at how many Christians do not have one single friend who is not a Christian. I’m amazed at how many churches go for weeks, months, even years without a single non-Christian present in their gatherings - yet exuberantly celebrate and proclaim success in the mission when a Christian transfers in from another church. I’m amazed at how many churches intentionally design everything they do around their own personal preferences rather than designing everything they do around whatever will be most effective in seeking out non-Christians and creating environments where they can experience the life-changing power of Christ. A guy named Paul once said, “I have become all things to all people so that by any means I may reach some.” He got it! His preferences, his agendas, his comfort were all rubbish if they got in the way of introducing one lost person to Christ.
If we stop coming face-to-face in relationships with people who are far from God, the movement stops. God’s anointing lifts and moves elsewhere because we are no longer engaged in what He is engaged in. Churches shrink and die. And we all sit around wondering what went wrong. Did we need a better band? Did we need small groups perhaps? Was the teaching not good enough? Did we need more money? No, it’s simple. What went wrong is that we left the movement, took the off-ramp, found a quiet shady spot, spread out our blanket where nobody would bother us, and spent our time feeding ourselves.