Let's Talk About Church

While in New York we went to two different churches. One of these churches was multi-cultural. The people of their church are divided like this: 1/3 hispanic, 1/3 asian, 1/3 english speaking. Talk about a culture shock! We went to the hispanic/english service while a mandarin Chinese service took place in the lower part of the building.

Prior to the service we had the opportunity to have a small question/answer time with some of the pastors. During this time we got to see their heart for this city, ministry, and the community. It was during this time that I saw that the norm of how people view the church in this area is not the same as how the church is viewed in the mid-west. It's not that no one in the midwest holds this view, but I do think you will find their focus is a bit different.

I began to see that what happens in side the church walls is not the focal point of the things they do. This church does not have a single sign out side of it's walls, there are no advertisements in the city as other churches have. So our first question was: "How do you bring people inside the church?" Well, as it turns out, what happens out side of the church walls is what is important. Don't get me wrong- they love coming together as a community and family to worship and learn more about be a disciple of Christ. But what good is it if they are not sharing the love of Jesus Christ with the people of their community?

I do think churches do a good job of reaching out to the community. And I do think there must be a healthy balance because I find that church services are important. But I think at times, the service becomes the focal point because that is what church is in our culture. People living on Manhattan don't just go to church because it is the cultural norm, like people do here. So I get that there community outreach has to be their focal point in order to show people Jesus.

I just want my view of the church to reflect the model that this church in New York City laid before me. A model of the church being a great place for worship for the family, but if the church as a body is not focusing on what happens outside of the walls, what happens in the walls is missing something. It's easy to think that if we can just get people inside of the church, we can show them Jesus. But I want to remember in my own life that if I don't show Jesus to people while I am outside of the church walls, they probably won't ever make it inside the walls.