How is the Church doing in your city? Specifically for those in my community, how is the church doing in San Antonio? This is a massive question that will invite very different responses from people. Is it failing? Is it succeeding? It is growing? Is it dying? Is it making a difference in the community? Would the community be impacted negatively it were not there?
Several weeks ago, a group of pastors in San Antonio got together in a conference room of a hotel to talk about way that we can come together to reach our city more effectively for Christ. There were about 50 of us in the room, and as we prayed together and strategized together, a pastor made a comment that I have not been able to shake free from my mind.
He said, “We, the Church collectively, need to own the lostness of our city.”
As a pastor in San Antonio, specifically in the North Central corridor of San Antonio, this statement momentarily overwhelmed me, and I believe he is right! I believe that God has called us to our community to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, and to become a community that is centered on Christ so that people are drawn to our God. The reality is that my community is lost. There is darkness in my community hiding behind the beautiful veneer of our suburban utopia. My community needs Christ.
I believe that if we are going to own the lostness of our community or of our city, we must collectively change our perspective on the “Church.” Here are four perspective shifts that I believe will drive us toward owning the lostness of our city.
1) We are not the building that we go to on Sunday, but a people who go out everyday into our community for Christ. Church is not an event that happens before we watch football on Sunday. We know this in theory, but our practice can contradict our theory. We are the church everyday in our community.
2) We do not exist to simply grow our local church, but to grow His universal church. This may sound strange coming from the pastor, but it is not all about Stone Oak Bible Church. It is about Christ and the kingdom of God. We as Stone Oak Bible Church get the privilege of being a part of something so much bigger than ourselves. My prayer is that we are a church that continually looks outside of ourselves to see the bigger picture of what God is doing in our world.
3) We are not spectators or attenders, but missionaries and partners. We always want to be invitational to those who are far from Christ to come and see what God is doing in our church community, but for those who are followers of Christ, Church is not a spectator sport. For those who are followers of Christ, you are not watching the game, you are in the game. God has a plan for you and you are a partner with us on the mission of Christ in our community.
4) We are not cultural Christians, but Christians in culture. “Cultural Christianity” is a term to describe people who claim to be Christian because of the American quasi-Christian culture of which they are a part. For some of these people, American = Christian. God is calling us to more than “Cultural Christianity.” He is calling us to be Christians who bring the good news of Christ to our broken culture.