Lesson 2 I learned from planting a church

Church is more than a building you go to on Sunday.  If you’ve spent much time in church, you’ve probably heard this one.  Thankfully, because of my time at Peace Community Church, I was able to witness this firsthand.  I hear so many of us (churchgoers) today wrapped up in music/worship styles, what the preacher wears and who was there and who was not that we’re missing the point of what church really is.

Church isn’t about a building that we go to.  Sure that’s what we call it, but it’s so much more than that.  The purpose of the church is to provide a place for a community of believers to come together to worship then to go out together to serve and teach the community and beyond about the love of God through His Son, Jesus.  That means both through our words and our actions.  Sure, the programs are great.  And the music is nice.  And it’s helpful to hear a message that resonates with us through the week.  But more important than all of that, our church should be a place where we come together with other believers that we can do life with.  We should support each other as we team up to reach the people around us that don’t know the joy of a true relationship with our Creator.  That might sound simple, but if we spend time looking at God’s church in the New Testament, it’s pretty simple there too.

Mary and I have had several talks about what church we will end up calling home.  Our discussions have led us to a couple of conclusions.  First, there are going to be a lot of things that we like about most any church that we’d be interested in visiting.  We have some criteria that our next church home must meet including solid Bible teaching, a focus outward (not worried about internal programs and numbers) and a solid, consistent place for our children to learn, play and grow.  Living in Hendersonville, TN, there are plenty of options out there that will meet those simple requirements.

Second, we know that there will also be some things about all churches we could attend that rub us the wrong way.  We realize that no church is perfect and if we spend our time and energy on judging and criticizing the shortcomings of every church option we have, we will certainly miss out on opportunities to work with God.  The truth is that all churches are made up of imperfect people with deficiencies that need a Savior and a Leader.  Our goal is to find a church that acknowledges that truth and to join them in the pursuit to become more like the example that God gave us in His Son and to be obedient to His Leadership.

Sooner rather than later, we will find a church that we can call home.  It’s important to us to find a place that we can partner with other Christians to show and share the love of God with our community and the world beyond.  Without our experience with PCC, it would be very easy for us to be caught up in the glitz, glamor, programs and events that we could use to compare and contrast our worship options.  But God used our time there to help us see what church is really all about and I’m thankful to have that perspective as our search continues.

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