Becoming a Better Church: Start With the Blueprint

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I’m reviving this blog because of a discussion on another blog.  I’ve always had ideas rattling around in my head about how the Christian Church of today could do a better job at… well… being a church.  My friend Ryan was blogging about being better communicators at church. I commented that if pastors want people to actually do what is preached on Sunday mornings, then they basically need a better grasp of educational theory – not just learn how to become better communicators.  There are many really excellent communicators out there in many churches, but we still see church attendance declining.  Ryan challenged me to share my thoughts on that. Basic summary, skipping some details, but you get the picture. You being Ryan, because I bet you are the only one that will read this post 🙂

Anyways, as I thought about it, I can’t really start with just how to do better preaching.  There is a bigger picture out there of how the Church needs to become a better Church. Not as in “toss everything out and start over,” or even as in “abandon the whole concept as obsolete,” but more as in “build on the strengths that are there and redo the things that aren’t working.”

The first thing that is not working, from what I see, is the church building itself. Why would I start a series on how to become better at preaching with a post on what we need to do differently with the Church building? Well, hang with me and find out.

Ever noticed how cold, uninviting, and abandoned church buildings look during the week? If you didn’t attend one – would you ever set foot in there? I even saw one Church building in Arlington that had a huge fence around it and a keypad-guarded iron gate. This “house of God” looked more like an exclusive country club than a place where people can find spiritual respite from the crazy world around us.

Let’s face it – no matter how “alive” your church is during your services and special events, the building itself looks dead 90% of the time.  And that makes the Church an intimidating place for new people that pass by it during the week.

When I first moved to Dallas, we lived in East Dallas and attended a church there. I noticed that many people who didn’t go to church were constantly in and out of the building all morning long… because we met in a community center. So that made me think: what if the church building itself were a community center?

I don’t mean “what if it met in a community center?” I mean, if you build a new church building and make that into a community center rather than a place that gets used a few hours a week, double bonus time if there is a wedding?

You would have a large meeting area, that could probably double as a gym or some other venue during the week. Then you would have your classrooms for Sunday morning. But then what if you opened up those rooms during the week for exercise classes, job skills classes, community meetings, family reunions, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, you name it? Get the community flowing in and out of the building all day long.

But why stop there? Why not have a wing of office spaces. Members of the church that are doctors, counselors, lawyers, restaurant owners, artists, etc could rent out office space there.  They would get subsidized rent there, passing those savings on to their customers. They could also hold free clinics and festivals and other events for the community.  Of course, you could also see outreach ministries setting up office here, as well as the pastor. Think of the impact that would have on people to just be able to run in to a pastor in the hall when they go to see the doctor or grab a scone at a coffee shop. They could see he is just a normal person.. and maybe his church isn’t half bad?

And don’t forget about the land around the center. There should be enough there for outdoor activities, games, soccer fields, basketball courts, a community farm, picnics, playgrounds, etc.

The point is to make the church building an active, alive hub of activity throughout the week… a place to build community like never before.

So that is where I would start: redo those church building blueprints out there.  But that is not all: I do still want to examine how we preach in church, and why that is failing us overall. A few points that I will hit on in the future:

  • No matter how good of a communicator a preacher is, the typical church sermon will never get people to actually do the things that are being preached on a significant scale.
  • The best tool that most people have on them to help them learn is the cellphone… and we tell people to turn it off during church.
  • The Internet is one of the best tools that we have to teach people how to live out their faith, but most people in the church that are even interested in the Internet are too caught up in figuring out what Church people want in a website that they never ask what people really need from website. A Church leader need to lead people to what they need online, not just follow his or her flock in to whatever they are interested in.