It’s Time For A New Kind of Church!
Is there anything wrong with the old kind of church? No, of course not- - - if it is people coming together to worship our Lord and carry out his work in this world.
We live in an age of the “mega church” wonderful phenomena of the last ten to thirty years. A mega church is a huge church with many being from 10 to 40 thousand. And we say, “God bless them,” because without them the church would have nearly disappeared.
Yet, we believe God is about to unleash a third force in this hurting world in the critical hour which we live. We also believe that Senior Pastor, Tim White, has a startling and practical vision of what God is about to do. He calls it the “meta church!”
We live in an age of the “mega church” wonderful phenomena of the last ten to thirty years. A mega church is a huge church with many being from 10 to 40 thousand. And we say, “God bless them,” because without them the church would have nearly disappeared.
Yet, we believe God is about to unleash a third force in this hurting world in the critical hour which we live. We also believe that Senior Pastor, Tim White, has a startling and practical vision of what God is about to do. He calls it the “meta church!”
The Meta Church A Third Force!
Part of the problem (for those of us coming from ruts in the past) is that the meta church concept isactually very simple and very pragmatic. Perhaps like other movements of God it is first of all strangely similar to what the Holy Spirit was doing in the Book of Acts. And secondly, many churches have already, if not all along, been testing and applying some of its factors.
Why- - - A New Kind of a Church?
Let’s consider two fascinating facts facing the 20th Century church. First, careful statistics will show that the church, across the board, has stopped growing. Sure, there is a lot of activity; that in the end seems like a lot of shuffling with little churches closing and big churches bulging. (Thank God for the huge churches who now days very quietly call someone who has not attended church for six weeks a “non-churched” person). Yet without the huge churches picking up the drop-outs it seems the church in general would be shrinking instead of just holding its own.
So the first fascinating fact is that the church in the United States has stopped growing and the second fact is church futurists have been warning that the basic economic cost of a church will cause many to cease to exist in the near future. Remember that most typical churches actually use their property and facilities a few hours a week. Any modern business knows it will fail unless it brings in a fortune of profit if its only open a fraction of the time.
So the first fascinating fact is that the church in the United States has stopped growing and the second fact is church futurists have been warning that the basic economic cost of a church will cause many to cease to exist in the near future. Remember that most typical churches actually use their property and facilities a few hours a week. Any modern business knows it will fail unless it brings in a fortune of profit if its only open a fraction of the time.
An Amazing Idea!
The meta church is a group of little country-churches averaging 150 to 500, but share office space, worship space, recreational and health facilities, educational facilities. The idea also allows sharing the highest level of counseling, after school tutoring programs, third-world mission’s projects, etc.
By Pastor Dale
By Pastor Dale
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