Biblical Community
VS
Corporate Institution
One of the biggest lessons we’ve learnt over the last 3 years, and probably one of things most people will notice about our church (whether you’ve been churched for a while or not) is how simple this community is: we don’t have a 10 person band that needs to practice for 4 hours before a gathering, we don’t have 17 bible studies of increasing levels of complexity. Sometimes the sound isn’t good or the video doesn’t play, and you’ll notice we don’t really seem to mind.
Goodness gracious the geeky guy who would normally be running the sound board is up here talking to you! But yet many of you would describe this place as family.
This is no accident, it’s not because we’re lazy that we choose to be church this way. It came from us learning the hard way how viewing church as an corporate institution - a schedule of well-planned, polished, and “excellent” events and strategies – how viewing church that way actually distracts us, even straight up keeps us, from truly encountering God, from truly being His Body.
I’d like to invite someone up here right now. I know it’s a title which he doesn’t particular like used lol, but as the director of Hamilton campus, someone who was put in charge of “building” this church, I’d like to invite Paul up here to share how God has reshaped our thinking about being church here at Westside Hamilton:
Chat with Paul
Ken: What were some of the things going through your head as you first took on being the director of Hamilton? What did you think church or running/building a church was back then?
Paul: The shoes were too big to fill, but my ego made me take it up. If you know me, you’ll know that I have stupidly high expectations on myself. And the way I was led and taught by my own leaders, and even as a youth, is that a leader or a pastor is one that KNOWS what he’s doing. And I am one that THINKS he knows what he’s doing. In short, I knew I would fall short of my own expectations, as well as others’, but I wanted to think that I could do it, so I took it. I wanted to make everyone’s worship experience as powerful and dramatic as possible. I wanted to see people grow. To me, running a church was SOLELY to create an atmosphere of worship to everyone who comes in, whether you are mature in your faith, or just started in it, or you were forced to come by a friend.
Ken: What were some of the things the God spoke to you, or things that you saw in this church, that made you reconsider those initial plans? What made you reconsider what church was?
Paul: Well, before God spoke, God allowed me to try. So i tried it... I gave it my all to make sure the atmosphere was compatible to as many people as possible. What ended up happening was that people started to get burned out, only select few grew because we as the leaders could only mentor so many people, and worse of all, no true disciples were being made because all of our efforts/energies were spent on creating quality services. And the more burnt out our leadership became, the more evident it became that something was off in our priorities. No real disciples were being made other than those who served, and even they weren’t finding Christ. There was an incorrect correlation between serving and discipleship. If there was any hunger for the Lord, we automatically plugged them into some sort of service ministry, like worship team or ushering.
At the same time, we kept reading about the Acts church, and how it wasn’t created, but it was a natural reaction to the movement of the Holy Spirit. I couldn’t reconcile that idea of church with what we saw at Westside.
Ken: In light of that redefinition, what do you feel are some of the practical shifts in focus necessary to respond to our new convictions?
Paul: So what did we do? we cut out a lot of ... extras. Whatever we can so that our focus and energy may be concentrated on prayer, the Word, and making disciples. Anything that required justification of its direct relation to the above were cut, simply because we didn’t have the energy. And what happened was this: 1st - a lot of people just felt free to be family. Intimacy grew. 2nd - a lot of people who don’t usually go to church, or believe in this faith, came... and stayed! It wasn’t (hopefully) because of our well planned, flawless, good sounding worship sets or sermons... they (I believe) really found people who cared... and, in our case, people who actually had energy to SHOW that we cared.
What’s pretty cool was that the fluff came back! When I say fluff, I mean absolute no disrespect to those things... we cut out newcomers ministry, ushering, special song during offering, harvest, even sound equipment sometimes. Some of these came back NATURALLY, with the people who serve in them having attained the right heart, that is, that we do all things for one purpose: to love God and love others, and to build others up.
Basically, I want to have people come in on saturdays and leave hungering for more, and then encouraging them to BE what we experienced on those days, everyday, wherever they go.
Throughout the NT, the church was always described first and foremost as a community, a community that held deep relationships with one another and with God; a community that represented what Jesus said were the 2 greatest commandments. The bible is full of descriptions of how believers should treat one another:
Carry one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)
Bear with one another (Colossians 3:13)
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. (Ephesians 5:19-20)
Have mercy and compassion for one another (Zechariah 7:9)
Love one another (23 passages)
But somewhere along the way, in our attempt to “build our church”, we’ve created this system where there are a few leaders who fed hundreds of spiritual consumers, who are coming just cause they’re taught to go to these church-y events. And nowadays whether a church is good or not is mainly judged on whether the leaders could drum up engaging events and programs, and do them with “excellence”; whether there’s good music, whether there’s good teaching, whether there’s child care, whether there are good products offered that will help me grow. All the while these leaders are so consumed with planning and logistics that they can’t do or teach or demonstrate the one thing that really matters in a community, loving each other (written specifically in 23 passages).
The church in Acts, the original church, paints such a picture of love.
Acts 2:42-47
42And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
It was a picture where everyone gave their lives to God’s kingdom wholeheartedly; no one was there just to take, everyone gave however they could. The church was “a royal prisethood, holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9), these souls who were knitted together for the name of Jesus.
I’m not saying this community should be a free-for-all and everyone does whatever the heck they feel like with no regard for being organized. You do see that we try to start on time, you do see that we prepared music, you do see that we have snacks, you do see that we have teaching.
The praise team does practice, but when Paul doesn’t mind singing off key on stage, it’s because he wants to be free to worship and he’s encouraging you guys in that, so that those of you who are annoyed by it may be freed by his humility, and those of you who don’t think you can sing could feel free to praise God. ‘cause if the dude up on stage could be off key at the top of his lungs, then certainly you can praise with whatever voice you’ve got.
When someone greets you at the door, it’s not just because we wanted to make you feel welcomed and smile for you for 20 weekends a year, it’s because we hope and pray that eventually you’d get it that this is family and you'd start greeting people, you'd start to make people feel welcomed into this family.
When the Fernandez’s so graciously provide snacks for our gathering, it’s not just cause they want you to sit and eat yummy snacks, they’re modeling for us a way to give to this community, and we hope you’d do the same in your own way too.
Ultimately us leaders, those of us at the forefront of this community, we’re not here to give you a nice, comfortable, well-received time every service, that’s not our purpose, that’s not the reason we have this every Saturday. That’s not the reason we have anything.
Jesus didn’t say we’re to be known by our excellent music, or our eloquent teaching, or our flawless logistics, He said in John 13:34-35
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
We gather to love our God, we gather to love one another, and we gather to see to it that we live for those 2 things. As Paul said, we gather so that we could help each other be disciples of Jesus Christ. That’s why we gather.
“Believers don’t come to church. Believers become church.”
That’s what we’re committed to living out here.
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