The other day Noah and I were building with blocks and I began to question him what it was exactly that we were building. A lot of times we just build for building’s sake. Good times had by all. This time he was persistent to get it just right. We put up the four walls and then added two slanted pieces to simulate a roof line. The walls were tall, towering, and void of windows. Their was one way in, no way out. Their was a parking lot and a prefered parking space near the door for the wealthiest individual. All of the people were sitting in a straight row in the very back of the facility. Then there were 4 people on the opposite wall, they were all standing.
I got really curious and asked him what we were building and who all of these people were. He responded with this is a church. These are the people, and this is the worship team. (I had to help him with the term worship team, that wasn’t natural, but they were clearly defined in his mind.) 
I watched as he carefully and intentionally positioned people, and blocks. He was sure that he was building the church. In reality he is. This looks a lot like our churches, right? What if we looked at the book of Acts and the early church? Would we come to the same architectural structure? What about the placement of people, would that be the same too? I doubt it.
However, by the time Noah turned five he has a pretty good idea of what the church in the west looks like. I hope that when I am building blocks with Noah’s children that maybe the face of the church would look a little different, a little more like a group of people huddled together rather than neatly lined up in a row. Maybe it would be in a facility of some sort, just not so predictable. Can you imagine church being any different than it is now? Should it look a little different than it does now? What do you think?
Oh by the way, Woody and Army Man stopped by because they heard the wonderful music inside. They said they weren’t really into the whole God thing, so they sat in the balcony that day.
~Peter
Can you spot all of the things that are messed up with Noah’s form of church? Tell me what you see.
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I just started a new book last night, and I am loving it already. I knew it was going to be good when I was already underlining in the Foreword! I have started Killing Cockroaches by Tony Morgan. I made it all the way to page 7 when I had to stop and think about this one for a little bit… This was too good not to share!
Have you realized yet that you interact with hundreds and thousands of people a year? Dependent upon your job, you may meet and greet several thousand people a year. If you live in a neighborhood, or development. If you live in what we have commonly called a town, city, or village… likely you will run into people. And here’s the deal. People are messy. People are really dirty. They have problems. They have issues! BOY DO THEY HAVE ISSUES! Everyone has issues but me. (Ever find yourself saying that?) What do we do with all of these dirty, messy, smelly, people filled with issues when we run into them. You know, the kind that barge into your life with all kinds of problems. How do you and I handle these moments? What is it that we will do?
