I went to a new club this week. I’d phoned ahead so they knew I was going to be there, but when I arrived no one welcomed me and I was left to ask another person (who also turned out to be new) if I was in the right place. Being a chatty kind of guy I tried to strike up a conversation or two, but the people I was next to clearly didn’t want to include me and when their friends arrived they moved away from me and even turned their backs on me as they formed a tight circle.
At the end I was left standing on my own and had to approach the group leader to ask, “what happens next? What about next week?” I was given a non-committal answer.
Needless to say, I won’t be going back.
But it gave me a taste of what church can be like on the very worst level – a club for insiders only, a holy huddle, a place you’re not part of and frankly I didn’t like the look of it.
Neither of our churches are remotely that bad, but there is always the danger that church can become too comfortable, too cosy, too insular and so this autumn we are going to look at what it means to be a real church like that found in Acts chapter 2, but this is no academic exercise, no interesting sermon series for the autumn, I sincerely believe that if we don’t rediscover how to be an authentic church then all that awaits us ultimately is the culture of being a club which is not what we are called to be because it is not God-honouring and that way lies the death of the local church.
Our title is “Leaving the Harbour” – it’s all about leaving the comfortable safety of where we don’t have to do anything and setting out into open water where we have to trust God and obey him. It might be a rough ride, but if it means we pick up lots of new crew members who love being onboard then it’s worth it. I hope that you will join us – you are very welcome!
