Just a quick thought before I drop exhausted into bed tonight after the infamous birthday weekend.
I went to our City Place campus of Christ Fellowship today, one of my favorite spots to be. The campus pastor, John Poitevent, was away. Andy Glass, another staff member, took his place and preached a great message on God’s wisdom. I needed to hear it today. One point popped out at me…God knows everything, holds all things together. And we don’t want to trust him? We’re nuts!
Anyway, one of the announcements concerned a prayer walk for City Place this coming Saturday (June 27). I love the idea. They are going to walk through the community and silently pray for the shops, the people, the visitors. Love it! I also know that these particular campus pastors do not have a permanent office in the City Place community. So when they want to be with their community, it’s Starbucks or Panera or some other public place. It seems to me that this is not all bad. Think about it: the community sees their pastors counseling, walking, praying. It sees them THERE. And yet the flip side, of course, is that while the pastors are out THERE, they aren’t available in the church offices, running the myriad details that are required to make a church function.
Do we want to run a church or impact a community?
It’s not as simple an answer as my leading question would imply. And please don’t look to me for an answer: I’m not a pastor and I’m not always out there in the community either. I do know the answer is probably far more balanced than most of us would believe, however. In fact, that’s my only hope. Balance.
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Let’s error on the side of being in the community. That’s where the people live…even the ones that go to church. Thanks…
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2009/11/24/the-new-gospel-a-call-for-discernment/