My Church vs. The Church

Our lingo tells the underlying story of many of our beliefs about the church.  We speak of the church as “my” church as if somehow we have ownership of the church.  On the other hand, you go to “your” church as if somehow there is a rightful competition between “my” church and “your” church.

What is curious is that Scripture fails to differentiate in this fashion.   Paul’s letters are written to:

             “all the saints in all the churches in Galatia” Gal. 1:2

             “to the saints which are at Ephesus” Eph. 1:1

             “to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi” Phil. 1:1

             “to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse” Col. 1:1

The pattern is clear.  Paul writes his letters to the faithful followers of Jesus in a city.  Those that know Jesus, trust in his saving sacrifice on the cross, and live in obedient worship of Him are the recipients of these letters.

And I believe the same would be true today. If God were to address the people of my city in a letter, it is the height of arrogance to assume that that letter would be written to “my” church.  Rather it would be written to all the faithful in Christ Jesus in Greenville, South Carolina regardless of the name of their church or the status of their pastor.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if churches in our day recognized this fact, and those of us that love Jesus and desire to see His mission accomplished in the world partner together to that end? When I speak of church partnership, I mean the motley efforts of churches that love Jesus, and desire to see people come into saving relationship with Him for the glory of Jesus and the good of the city.

Historically church partnership is about the last thing on the radar for most church and most pastors.  However, in order to fulfill the mission of God in our day it is a must.

In our city, Greenville, there are approximately 450,000 people that live in Greenville County alone and most statistics tell us that 84 percent of those people are not in a relationship with Jesus and integrated into an evangelical church.  In hard numbers that represents 378,000 people.

That is a ton of people.  More than plenty to keep every church in the upstate of South Carolina busy for decades to come.

It is about time that we, as churches and church leaders, begin to ask questions that will lead us to the best ways give each of those people the repeated opportunity to hear and see the gospel of Jesus Christ and be integrated into a local church.

To this end, I have been so encouraged by the friendship and partnership of several churches in the Greenville area that have loved and blessed the team of Renewal Church in multiple ways.  Over the last month, I have been in contacts with leaders from The Summit, Kingdom Life Christian Fellowship, Rocky Creek Baptist Church, and Standing Springs Baptist Church who have each entered into partnership with us to help us launch Renewal Church.  It is with great thankfulness that we join these great men and women on mission with God in the upstate.

There are other churches that are helping us.  But what makes these churches unique is that they are all located within 5 miles of where we plan to start Renewal Church.  We are planting a church in their backyard, and they love it!

In fact, over the next month, I will have an opportunity to share in each of these churches about what God is doing in another church plant in their city.  This past week, I was interviewed at Summit Upstate about what God was doing.  The Summit elders have been exceedingly gracious with us and they rightly understand church partnership.  So much so, that following the interview, one of the elders of The Summit stood up and challenged his congregation to prayerfully consider whether any of them should leave The Summit and go with us to plant Renewal.

Now for folks that think “my” church this is stupid.  What happens if people stop going to “my” church and start going to “your” church?  But what if it is about more than "your" church?  What if it is about the kingdom of God on mission in the world through the local church?  What could God do? 

Maybe something great.

Something like the kingdom of God expanding as churches partner together to reach a city with the message of the gospel. 

And in the end, it would not be about "my" church but rather about the gospel.