“What if a church deliberately decides not to rent a bigger
space? What if they refuse to go into debt? What if they wait to raise
up leadership from within? What if they intentionally do the
counterintuitive, impractical thing every step of the way?”

A recent post called The Counterintuitive Church puts into words what we here in Ancona have been experiencing over the years. It’s a longer road but one that I find very satisfying. You should read it. In an earlier post, the following points are made:

  • If people come to faith through confrontational, guilt-trip evangelism, they’re coming to a confrontational, guilt-trip faith.
  • If your church’s myopic focus on Biblical knowledge makes it more
    lecture hall than place of worship, you’re likely going to get a bunch
    of armchair Reformation theologians and wanna-be ancient Greek scholars
    who are more concerned with being right than anything else.
  • If you allow your church to get so large that it’s a challenge to
    really know everyone (anyone) else in that local body, (versus starting
    smaller, more local gatherings,) you are discipling your people into a
    less personal expression of Christianity and, therefore, a less
    personal view of Jesus. [Pragmatic argument:] Of course, relational
    church can happen in your megachurch (through small groups, cliques,
    informal social circles, etc.), but as you add programs and
    square-footage, it begins to happen in spite of how you do church, not because of how you do church.
  • If your church mired in legalism, it won’t last. Legalistic
    religious people eventually can’t keep up with their legalisms. To
    them, God is only pleased with an impossibly demanding cycle of
    performance. They usually end up abandoning their “faith” or isolating
    themselves for fear of secular contamination.
  • If your church worships worship, your people might not learn to worship God. At the very least, they could be left unable to worship without a worship band and Mediashout®
    video backgrounds. Believers need to learn to worship, learn, serve,
    and share without the help of the professionals who make their livings
    by (intentionally or otherwise) perpetuating dependence.
  • If your church sits in grandstands with the lights
    dimmed, staring at a jumbo-tron, don’t be surprised if they act like
    spectators.