Museum or Mission?

I can hardly wait for church tomorrow! Due to the weather last weekend, it has been two weeks since we last gathered together for Sunday worship. And to be honest, I REALLY miss the smiles, hugs, music, Word, and the power and presence of the Holy Spirit among us!

This Sunday, we embark upon Unleash the Dream, Pt. III. I have been looking over the message all morning. I am quite eager and anxious to share this particular message on Sunday. I shall say no more - you will just have to be in the house to fully understand what I mean. :-)

I will tell a brief story, though, that will help set the stage for our time together this Sunday. It's a true story and one that I believe speaks to the call of Christ upon His church!

I know of an inner city church that was forced to a make a difficult decision. The church was located in an area of the downtown city where there were very few residents. Like a lot of urban churches, they had been hit by the suburban sprawl and found themselves only remembering the good ole days. A large corporation was offering them a great deal of money for their site, on which the corporation wanted to put a parking lot. The money would enable the church to move to another part of the inner city where they would find many more people to serve. Even though this was exciting to some in the congregation, other members were resistant to the idea. They pointed out that the church was the guardian of a building whose history and architecture reached back into the early part of the nineteenth century. Denominational history had been made in that building, and some grand figures in the faith had passed its portals.

Eventually the congregation decided to sell the site and make the move to a new building in a thriving inner-city neighborhood. The pastor who was with this congregation through all this upheaval said, "We had to decide whether we wanted to be in a museum or in mission."

You see, newhope, they couldn't have it both ways. It meant either staying on their site, glorying in their past history and serving a few people, or giving up their past and gearing themselves to a significant ministry among the city's people. They opted for mission status over museum status.

In many ways, almost every day, the church has to decide whether or not she will be a mission or museum. And while it is hard for us to imagine this tension in a brand-new church facility, the truth is we will be faced with this same dilemma/decision with every passing year. Will we as a church slip into the museum mindset or we will remain missional? I am certain you know what the answer should be. However, knowing the right answer and doing the right answer is where all of this gets most difficult. I believe we are up for the challenge and I can't wait to discuss it more with you this Sunday.