An Interesting Perspective On Church.

The following is an excerpt from a Rob Bell interview I found on Neue Ministry’s website. You can find the full interview here, but take a read of this snippet when Rob talks about the difference between “going to” church and “being” the church:

“On Sundays at Mars Hill, we would simply say this is just a gathering of the church, or churches. We gather throughout all the days of the week as communities, but we actually journey together in smaller networks of people. So, if you come here on Sunday, you come for an hour and a half for whatever teaching and singing, and get some information, but please don’t say you’re a part of this church. You went to a service this church put on. So to me, God can use all these different ways. The issue is whether we’re honest about what things are, and we call them what they are, and we don’t place expectations on things that can’t deliver.”

This is something that I try and breathe into reality at Immersion, the ministry that I help lead. We make a mistake in the church when we say, “I’ve gone to church today” without realizing that that identity as the church follows us into our everyday lives – whether we like it or not.

Have you noticed this? This awareness of a few pockets of people that what we have classified as “church” for so long has been sorely misguided.

Is this just a generational thing? Is this understanding just for a younger generation? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.