On going to two or more churches…

Here’s a record of some comments I made to the congregation last Sunday. A whole stack of fruitful conversations came out of it, so thanks! You guys rock.

“In the next few weeks I want to talk to you about some exciting plans for future mission and ministry from this congregation. As you can see the venue is nearly full, and it’s exciting to think about what God would have us do next.

But this week I wanted to spend a couple of minutes addressing the issue of going to two churches—namely this church and another church.

What I say is by no means meant to be legalistic, and it may be that I don’t exactly describe your situation. That’s fine. If we can start a conversation, that will be a great outcome.

At St Matthew’s, one of our passions is to see the churches of Perth strengthened, and new churches planted. That’s a passion and a commitment on our part, and that’s the context for what I am about to say:

I know that some of us at Unichurch are involved in or between two different churches (ed: myself included–I go to Unichurch and to Unichurch International). Let me just say three things on that front:

1) For some of you, you come from a great, gospel loving, Christ proclaiming, people loving church, but for various reasons you’ve ended up here.

If that’s you, I’d love you to prayerfully consider whether it would be better for you to be back there contributing to that ministry.

Ask yourself these questions:

- Is being here limiting your capacity to contribute there?
- If there is no evening service there, could you start one? Just in your lounge room or a café or something.
- Could you be using a Sunday night for a Bible study?
- Or for going down to the local pub or whatever and meeting locals?

Perth needs more churches, and if you are from a gospel loving church, I’d love you to talk to God and talk to us about giving all you’ve got to that ministry.

2) There is a second category of people who come to this church in order to be strengthened for the ministry at your home church.

It might be that you come here to get the teaching or meet the people, in order to find encouragement and keep going with the Sunday School or the Youth Group at home, or you’re planning to start an evening congregation like this one at home, and so on.

Now, as a model that has some costs for us. But they are costs we are willing to bear. And gladly.

If that’s you, can I say:

- Make sure the leadership at your church know what you are doing and why.

- Let us know: both so we don’t follow you up unnecessarily, and so that we can see if there’s more we can do to help you with the ministry back home.

3) And finally, there are those of you who are choosing a church. Maybe you feel that the church you used to go to isn’t a gospel believing, people loving church. That it doesn’t teach God’s word or is misleading people or whatever.

Or you’ve just never settled somewhere—your constantly moving from church to church.

If that’s you in any way, then can I say: Jump on board! Make the decision, have the conversations you need to have, and come stand with us.

Being a Christian is fundamentally a community exercise. It’s not about being a lone ranger, but an active member of a community, a community the Bible calls the Body of Christ.

So, make and decision and jump on board. We’d love to give you what we’ve got to give, and we’d love to receive from you what God wants to give us through you.

In the next few weeks, I want to talk about some plans we have for creating new congregations and expanding the ministry of this congregation.

But for this week: Three questions for people from other churches:

o Do you need to go back?

o Do you need to talk to us about strengthening what you do back home?

o Do you need to take the plunge and get on board?

Catch me, or one of the staff or Hub leaders afterwards. We’d love to talk to you about any of these issues.”