If there was one word for the church...

If I could give you one word, that word would be 'GO'. 
Go to where the people are. 
Go to where the needy are. 
Go to the people nobody else is caring for. 
And there in life's margins - among the broken and disillusioned - 
expect to find God there and hear what he'd have you do.
The prevailing word among most churches is 'build it and they will 
come'. 
It might make for a good movie but it is the antithesis of Christ's 
command to 'go and find the lost and rescue them'.
The prevailing word in successful churches is 'settle down'. 
Settle down in your office and write a good sermon. 
Settle down in your Board meeting and write a good strategic plan. 
Settle down in your renovated building and expect the seekers to come.
If the church is meant to have any seekers, them seekers are supposed 
to be us - us seeking first the kingdom, us seeking first his will, us 
seeking first the lost and broken and hurting and abandoned, us going 
out into the alleyways and the dingy rooms, among the forgotten lost 
in institutions of care - the mentally ill, the elderly, those in 
homeless shelters.
Tell the pastor he can't write his sermon in his office where the 
hurting people aren't. 
Tell the Board it's God's vision which drives the church, and that 
vision can only be clearly seen on the street where God goes before 
you.