[Linux4christians] OT: 10 UNUSUAL CHURCHES IN THE WORLD ---#7 is a Gothic Church, Dakota

[Robinson Mitchell]

Very attractive and interesting buildings.

In a series I taught on Galatians, I pointed out that if you were to go to a
first century Christian in the part of central Turkey where Paul planted
churches and to which he addressed his first letter, probably the earliest
existing NT document, if you were to ask one of those Christians, "Where do
you go to church?" they would not be able to understand the question.

I followed this with, "I want to be sure you get this main point of the
series we are beginning today.  I want you to be able to quote this point to
the elders of the church so that you can tell them that Rob was teaching
this:  *Don't go to church!  *That's right, you heard me.  If I am
successful in teaching you what I want to teach you through this series, I
want you to quit going to church forever.  Let me repeat:  *Don't go to
church."

*This was met with a stunned silence on the part of my hearers (okay,
perhaps not stunned, but at the very least nervous and a bit confused).  I
then put up a slide that said:

Don't *GO *To Church -
*BE the Church!*

One of the problems of the contemporary church is our love of buildings -
acquisition and maintenance of buildings is the biggest budget item for many
churches, and in this time of economic downturn, churches are already laying
off staff as they struggle to hang onto buildings they can just barely
afford, or perhaps no longer can afford.
A couple of salient articles I wrote on the topic:
http://nakedchurch.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/wheres-the-heart-of-the-church-buildings-or-mission/
http://nakedchurch.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/embracing-congregational-death-to-birth-new-churches/

I don't want in any way to dismiss the beauty of church buildings, but the
buildings are *not* the church.  The church God sees and loves is a building
not made with human hands.

Rob Mitchell
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