A New Kind of Church...What if...?

I have a dear friend and long-time colleague in ministry, Tom Dickelman, who stepped out on faith 16 years ago and started a new church in the Chicago suburbs. A few weeks ago he sent me a document that sits on a table near the entrance as people enter his church for worship. It is a simple, straight-forward document that seeks to describe who they are and who they aren't as a community of faith. Here it is:

 

We do not have members

            but over 200 active families call the Community Church “home”

We are an independent congregation

            and do not report to or pay taxes that support external bureaucracies 

We do not have a church building

            and believe the use of existing community spaces is economically and 
            environmentally responsible 

We hold over 30 worship services each year on the shores of Lake Michigan

            and experience nature as a dynamic and inspiring cathedral

We also worship in the historic Lily Reid Holt Chapel at Lake Forest College

            which we have leased through the year 2030 

We are not guided by historic creeds

            but by contemporary needs and who we believe God calls us to be 

We do not include outreach in our church budget

            but have raised about as much for outside charitable groups and ministries as we have
            for ourselves over the last 8 years

We also do not include outreach in our church budget

            because people in our day are highly-educated and have access to all the information 
            they need to make informed charitable giving decisions

We do not have committees

            which allows people to use their time for worship, spiritual growth, mission and 
            fellowship not running the business of the church

We follow the way of Jesus

            but respect and honor other traditions 

We do not tell you what your faith should look like

            instead, we seek to be an inspiration and active partner in your spiritual growth

The Community Church of Lake Forest & Lake Bluff

www.thecommunitychurch.us

I don't mind admitting that I cried when I read this. That's how moved I was. That's how impressed I was by the clarity, simplicity, and purity of this ministry. I would love to be a part of a community with these values, and, in one sense, I am, because the good folks from The Community Church have welcomed me to their unique community on a number of occasions. I even got to speak there on March 1. At the end of the service, they blessed me and offered their support to me, as I seek to find some folks here in Northern Michigan who are moved by this vision for spiritual community. They know that they are onto something important, something worth replicating, and they think that I have the gifts, the vision, and the context to give it a go up here. What I know is that I can't give birth to something like this on my own.

So if you spend all or even some of your year in the Petoskey - Harbor Springs area and would like to be a part of a new kind of community, get in touch with me and let's talk. I am totally energized and excited about being a part of a spiritual community like my friend Tom's. He and his staff have pledged their support to me as I explore this in Northern Michigan. I will be visiting with them periodically and their Center for Innovative Ministry staff will be coming up here from time to time to help us bring this vision to life.

Why not print out this blog - or at least the statement from The Community Church - and post it on your refrigerator or your mirror. Talk with your spiritually minded friends about it. Pray about it and about your role in a Northern Michigan version of this. Who knows what God might have in store for us?