Blog A Tale of Two Churches. Building Church or Building Kingdom

Recently Juanita and Johnny Berguson had a clear view of the different ways people approach the church.

It started with attending a church service with some friends in Florida.   The facilities were impressive and bustling with activity.   The worship was a beautiful: then came the sermon.  The pastor was a gifted speaker.  And, for the days’ sermon, one of our favorites:   They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. His point was how to impact the world around us.

This should be good, we thought.   Then, the irritation set in.  

Each of the points in the scripture, the pastor used to point to and grow his church.

Apostles Teaching, he said that we fulfill devoting ourselves to the apostles teaching by going to church.

Fellowship and breaking of bread, he said that is fulfilled by joining a life group

Prayer, he said that is fulfilled by joining the Monday prayer group.  

Huh?

So many times Johnny and Juanita feel challenged when attending some churches.  The leadership seems to make a significant mis-step.   They begin to think that their group is ‘the church’.   With that mindset they feel that certainly there is nothing wrong with them collecting the tithe to spend the lion’s share on themselves, their staff and facilities and give a just a bit to outside ministry efforts.

The following week, Johnny and Juanita streamed their home church in Pennsylvania, and the contrast was striking.   The church had a special speaker who was focused on visiting local churches to raise up coordinators who would help with the key mission of the church:  orphans in their distress.   So many at risk and suffering children do not have adequate support, even with existing government programs.   This ministry calls forth people and connects them to tangible needs.  They make a difference in so many lives of young people and even provide outstanding help to those helping the young people, in and outside of government programs.   This service, as so many services at Church of the New Covenant in Mansfield, PA, had the focus of equipping people and sending them out to serve. The leaders view their fellowship as one expression of the larger church, emphasizing that much of ministry should take place beyond the church’s four walls.