Perimeter Pointe Church

Thought you might like to read a brief article by Neil Cole.

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I was recently asked by a Christian Magazine why Organic Church has an advantage to more conventional church expressions in reaching lost people. Here is my answer.

When we teach about organic church (OC), it is not the kind of church (organic, seeker sensitive, purpose-driven…whatever) that is attractive to lost people, it is Christ, and Christ alone. When we make it about church–what kind of church, what is done at church, how is it done, who is the preacher/singer–we miss the point. Unless we realize that it is Christ in us that makes church anything better than the Kiwanis club we miss the plot. Lost people are not spending their hours trying to figure out how to get to church, or what kind of church they would like. The typical lost person sees only two things that church is good for: marrying and burying, and most are trying to avoid both.

But lost people are curious about Christ (As the Passion of the Christ demonstrated). It is not accidental that the two books that have sold the most recently are both about Jesus Christ–The Purpose-Driven Life and The DaVinci Code. Jesus is on people’s minds and in their curiosity. They want to be a part of something that is significant. And, they want to be a part of a close knit family that cares for one another. I believe that our expression of church provides a better opportunity for people to experience those things. Being another spectator on Sunday morning is not enough for most people who have not yet found Christ.

Coming into a living room with a close knit spiritual family where everyone is involved, each praying and singing and sharing their inner lives, is quite amazing for someone who has not learned to trust yet. Then sensing the power of Christ working in and through those people can break any heart. The love we have one for another is a powerful ingredient in evangelism, but sitting in an auditorium listening to a preacher talk about it is not as powerful as being able to actually witness it and experience it first hand. A neighbor nudge for two minutes on Sunday morning is not enough to display God’s power in us.

I have seen toughened street gangsters, weep in the presence of Christ among His people and just pour out confession because of the conviction of Christ. I have seen Palestinian Muslims surrender everything to Christ in the midst of a spiritual family. I have witnessed tough gang assassins surrender to Christ in prayer. Just last week, four fraternity students gave their life to Christ in a meeting at the frat house in front of their peers. Christ in us is powerful, it is the hope of glory. Simply being another anonymous person in a pew is not so powerful, no matter how expressive the music or moving the sermon is.

Of course, another edge that OC has in reaching out is that it is able to go where lost people live life. Rather than being merely another attractional church waiting for lost people to come to it, OC brings Christ to where people are. Church should happen wherever life happens, you shouldn’t have to leave life to go to church. That means His church is truly “holy and apostolic” in the fullest meaning of the word…sent by God to the world on a mission.

For me, however, the greatest advantage of OC is that regular Christians are empowered to do the work of the kingdom and are not waiting for the professionals to do it for them. To unleash an army of ordinary Christians empowered with Christ on a sleeping world is my hope and dream. OC can do that. Now, all of us are priests and everything is sacred. To the pure all things are pure. A job at Hewlett-Packard is a holy calling into ministry. All of us are called to ministry. All are ordained. The workplace becomes a sacred calling for the ordinary believer to bring the kingdom of God into a dark place.

Christian leaders are no longer to do the work of the ministry, but to equip the Christians to do the work. Evangelists are not called merely to evangelize, but to equip the saints to do evangelism. Teachers are not only called to teach, but to equip ordinary Christians to learn how to fulfill the great commission and “teach them to observe all that (Christ has) commanded (us).” This is a revolution that will turn church as we know it upside down, and in the process all the passive Christians will be poured out into the world like salt out of a salt shaker. Wow, now that will change the world!

–Neil Cole

Hey everyone! I wanted to post a blog from a guy named Traver Dougherty, who is part of Church Multiplication Associates. CMA is a big influence on the organic church movement and things like Life Transformation Groups that we do. Very interesting! Please feel free to comment.

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Recently I attended the Sunday service of a church looking to be “missional.” Knowing my research interests, a key staff person spoke with me about a whip-bang event they’re planning, complete with free food and bounce houses for the kids. “We’re trying to reach out to the neighborhood,” she told me.

Although I didn’t mean to, I think my heart went numb. My simple question is this one: When will we come to understand that “missional” isn’t the next event, but the next breath, all that we are, used of God, led by the Spirit to usher in the Kingdom to any and all “dark” places? “You [not free food or bounce houses] are the light of the world” [Mt 5:14]. I tell you the truth, as long as we think in terms of events we’re sunk in the water.Does this mean bounce houses and hot dogs are off limits? Absolutely not. For example, my friend Scott Wilson makes use of his Big Red Bus appropriately; that is, he doesn’t see “Big Red” as a tool, but as a blessing. There’s a difference. Scott puts it this way, “We want to love people whether they ever love our God or not.” When we use tools, we manipulate. When we bless, we’re a blessing.In the end, motives will always find us out. And too often, when we “do” events, we’re looking for a “return,” thereby “objectifying” people. Instead, let’s be faithful to embody the gospel, sow the Word (often by sharing verbally), let God bring a harvest, and reap when the time is right.When it comes to missional, think nets, not hooks. Jesus said, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of people” (Mt 4:19). Notice the imagery. Hooks are baited, attractional. Nets of relationships, however, are all-encompassing and those in the process of being “caught” are swept away in a torrent of love.

Now, with Jesus at the helm, let’s go throw our nets on the other side of the boat.

Blessings,

Traver Dougherty

Church Multiplication Associates

(Traver wrote this in his regular “Helpful Tid Bits for Organic Church Life” on June 23, 2008. You can sign up for the e-newsletter here)

Ok..so I just got back from vacation and I was doing some deep thinking.  Just how wasteful is the American church?  Well, it’s impossible to tell, but I did a little figuring.  Now my figures are very conservative and I’m sure I could have come up with much bigger numbers…but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t over stating my case.

It is estimated that there are well over 335,000 protestant churches in America.  Those are bricks and mortar churches.  Not counting the house churches and organic church like ours.  So, let’s say there are 300,000 total Christian churches.  If the annual cost of construction, maintenance, and general repairs on the building were $100,000 per church, that would mean we are spending $30 billion dollars on buildings.  Now, it won’t be that much at some churches, and it will be much more at others.  But then, let’s add the average salary of a pastor.  Rather than take into consideration the really big churches, I just took the average salary of a small-church pastor, which Gallup says is around $35,000.  With 300,000 churches that comes to $10.5 billion per year!   Combining both the building costs and the salaries, the American church as a whole spends $40.5 billion per year.   Now, let’s say that I really did overstate these figures.  Let’s cut that number in half.   Let’s say it’s only $20 billion per year.  Remember, that’s just building and one pastor’s salary!  What would that kind of money do?

It would pay for:

60,000 wells built in central Asia

 OR

130,000 water tanks constructed in middle east

 OR

48 million children fed for 1 day or 133,000 children fed for an entire year in many third-world countries

 OR

164,000 sheep in a third-world country

 OR

80 million malaria treatment plants in Africa

OR

go a LONG way to help alleviate poverty for 36 million Americans living below the poverty line!

Not to rant, but that’s a lot of good we could be doing!  I know I’m preaching to the choir, but sometimes it’s good to see in black and white a confirmation of what we are doing!  I’m so glad that we are committed to using our resources for REAL ministry at Perimeter Pointe!

The next scheduled corporate worship gathering will be Sunday night, June 29th at 6 PM.  We’re going outside for this one!!  We’ll gather under a pavilion at Veteran’s Park in Alabaster!  This should be a fun and unique worship experience!

We are rescheduling our corporate worship gathering.  Stay tuned for more details!

We enjoyed a wonderful corporate worship celebration including our home churches this past Sunday night!  It was great to hear testimonies from several people about how God is using home church, community groups, and life transformation groups to change lives!  We also enjoyed a great worship time with Brad leading us once again!  We’re looking forward to next month’s gathering as well!

Join us tonight, April 27th a 6PM for our first corporate worship celebration!  Our house churches will gather together to celebrate what God is doing in our families and in our community!  We’ll meet at Safe Harbor Church in Pelham!  For directions, click here.

We’ve changed the date of the corporate worship celebration from this Sunday to next Sunday, April 27th!

There is a new movie coming out this Friday that I would encourage everyone to see! It’s called “Expelled” and it’s a documentary by Ben Stein addressing questions about the theory of evolution! Finally, an intelligent response in movie form! Check out the trailer here and make plans now to see the movie!

Our first monthly corporate worship celebration for our home churches is set for Sunday, April 27th at 6 PM. We’ll be meeting at Safe Harbor in Pelham. Get directions here. Our goal for this gathering is to celebrate together what God is doing in and through our home churches. Come ready with testimony of God working! We’ll also celebrate through song together!