What if we could change our thinking to see that the 110 waking hours we have away from "church services" is our personal harvest field (168 - 56 - 2 = 110)? What if what we did during the 110 hours away from sitting in worship chairs was more important than what we did during the 2 hours of "church" gathered in large groups? We think about church so strangely.
What if we could stop measuring the success of "church" by attendance, budgets, and buildings and start evaluating community on how effective we are outside of our own interests? (I know that is statistically impossible in Etowah County, Alabama but I'm just thinking out loud.) I guess attendance, budgets, and buildings have their place, but what if they were not the primary indicators that a group of believers were walking just as Jesus walked?
I was talking with someone who is trying to start a "new" church and their primary measure for their success was: attendance, budgets, and the obsession with buildings. (I know that I pastor a church who has just built a new facility and its easy for me to say you don't need one, but I can see how a "new" church might go in a different direction.)
Keep thinking missionally. You'll be surprised at how much you can change.
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