Partners In the Gospel

One of the great things about this season of starting the Springs has been the relationships I've enjoyed with other pastors and church leaders. I am excited to call members and leaders of several other area churches friends and partners in the gospel. I appreciate the way I've been befriended and made to feel welcome. Several churches have found creative ways to help me and our church during our start-up, something for which I will always be grateful. When I was on the other side of this equation--being the staff member of a larger, more established church--I was generally bad with these kinds of things. I wasn't against anyone, I was just so engulfed in my own responsibilities and goals that I considered it an inefficient use of my time to focus on other churches' needs or invest time in getting to know other church leaders. I'm so glad to have received better than I gave.

I hope we all have a sense of partnership with other Christians and churches in our community. The truth is, we couldn't be starting the Springs without the support of several existing local churches and several more in other cities. One local pastor talked to me about his sense of responsibility for the spiritual welfare of our community; the weight of that statement hit me hard, but there was immediate encouragement in knowing that no church or leader has to carry that weight alone. And I was impressed that he accepted that responsibility, that he had a personal stake in whether or not people in our community respond to Christ and follow Him.

What we're about is much bigger than the Springs. Our mission is to help people connect to Christ, not necessarily to get everyone to "join" the Springs (whatever that may mean). When we come to see our part of the Church as the only legitimate, effective, or correct expression of the church in the community, we've really messed up. Numerically, all of us together are still a minority in our community: only about a quarter of us are actively involved in church life, so I doubt more than half of us are practicing Christians. The reality that we are as separated as we are is a contributing factor in our lack of success. I don't mean that we worship in separate buildings on Sundays; I mean that we don't seem to feel any connecting to each other the other 6 days of the week. I continue to wonder how people in the community who aren't Christians process the fact that followers of Christ from various churches have little or no relationship with each other. Anything we say about Christ's ability to connect us to each other must ring hollow. If you are such a person, I'd love to hear from you and get your thoughts on how you view Christians and churches in our community.

Based on what I know about my street right now, there are at least 3 churches represented. Only recently have those Christians begun relationships with each other that are distinguishable from other relationships in the neighborhood. I have no agenda that my Christian neighbors jump ship and start coming to our church instead of the one they currently go to. But I do have an agenda that all of us who are followers of Christ start acting like the church in our neighborhood. We can go to various churches, but there's no reason--no excuse, really--not to be the church together right where we are.