Get out

I thought it compelling that our pastor reminded us that at our inception we had committed ourselves to becoming a 'church without walls', a 'movement' rather than just another way of doing church.
I have been thinking about that ever since and have wondered what it would take for that to be true of us.

Recently my wife and I saw the documentary 'Soundtrack from the Revolution' capturing on film the civil rights movement of the 60's and the pivotal role music had (particularly spirituals) in driving the movement forward.
One thing I learned from the documentary: until the Rosa Parks incident, Martin Luther King was just another 'negro' preacher. He was renowned as a dynamic up and coming suburban preacher, but when Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back in the bus, she triggered something in Martin that got him out from behind his pulpit and into the street. Had Rosa Parks not taken a stand where segregation and bigotry prevailed, King would have never left his pulpit to lead the civil rights movement.

Jesus was God getting out from behind his pulpit, from behind his 2 stone tablets of the Law, out from behind the temple veil and out into the street. He led his disciples and those intrigued by him into the streets of Capernaum, Nazareth and Jerusalem. Only the Pharisees and religious leaders stood in his way, insisting God could only be found in His Temple and only through them. In the end Jesus prevailed, though it cost him his life.
So too King led his followers into the streets of Birmingham and Selma into the places where the opposition was the most fierce. He too prevailed though it would cost him his life.

If we are to ever to become a movement (and we will by no means be alone) we will have to get out from behind our pews, our pulpits, our office desks, our homes, our comfort zones, our church programs, our privileges and into the streets where God is at work. It will mean church gatherings which are about becoming trained, encouraged, inspired and provoked to go out. It will mean going to the places where the needs are greatest and where the opposition is fierce.

When we started, we talked about becoming a movement. It had me excited. I had been doing church for 30 years and I was ready for something brand new, something without walls, something that would have us out on the street where the people and Jesus are.
But we've stalled, become somewhat set in our ways, preferring 'propriety over prophetic action', predictable, an institution rather than a movement.
We have to get out.