Is Church a Destination?

How would you answer that question? After all, we talk all the time about “going to church,” or we talk about our church as the place “we attend.”

It sounds like a destination to me, but is that the way it is supposed to be? The American church has become very destination focused. It’s all about what church you attend. We’ve been lulled into believing that simply attending church is “doing church.”

The church is really more like an airport. Imagine an airport jammed full of people and planes sitting idle on the tarmac. It has the look of success, but is anybody really going anywhere? Airports are to transport people from one place to another - that’s their mission. If planes aren’t taking off full of people, the airport isn’t really functioning like an airport is supposed to.

Like an airport, the church is a connection hub intended to help people reach their destination. The church itself is not the destination. It is the vehicle God designed to move people.

The uphill battle in this is shifting our thinking away from seeing church as a destination to seeing the church as a movement. It is so easy for a church to fall prey to thinking they are successful just because they are attracting a lot of people. Remember, like an airport, the church should not be seen as the destination but as the vehicle to get somewhere. The church has been commissioned by God for an incredible mission. That mission is about sending people out, not holding onto them.

The church was never intended to be a container. It is designed and intended to be a sending mechanism that serves the needs of the local community and the world. It’s through sending that we bring the light of Christ into focus for all to see so that those served praise our Father in heaven. It is then that a person is more open to hear the good news of the Gospel because they’ve seen it in action through the members of the church who were sent out.

The church serves as a very important hub of connection. I like to say, “We gather to teach so we can scatter to reach.” Gathering and connecting is important, but it should not become the end-all. Leveraging the power of connection for the sake of missional accomplishment is vitally important. However, we must guard against becoming satisfied with simply gathering.

A church that doesn’t exercise the Great Commission is like a person who doesn’t exercise at all. Pretty soon their weight becomes a problem, they start feeling lethargic, and the excitement of life is gone.

Can you imagine churches committing to serve the needs of people outside their walls, refusing to be simply a holding tank for people and, instead, becoming a real missional force in their community and the world? It can happen, but we must change our thinking about church as a destination.

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*reprinted from the Peoria Times